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[This fac-simile is from a bond given by Israel Putnam to his brother David, in 1743.] 



LIFE 



OF 



ISRAEL PUTNAM 

("OLD PUT"), 



MAJOR-GENERAL IN THE CONTINENTAL ARMY. 



BY . ii/) 



INCREASE N. TARBOX. 



i/-/' 



1 t. 



/ 



Mit^ pap sub Illustrations. 






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BOSTON: 

LOCKWOOD, BROOKS, AND COMPANY. 

1876. 



kA 






Copyright, 

INCREASE N. TARBOX, 

1876 



THOMAS TODD, 

etereotj'per and Electrotyper, 
1 Somerset St., Boston. 



6?o 



PREFACE. 



It is not the aim of this volume to report any new histori- 
cal discoveries, but simply to bring back to its old anchorage 
ground an important piece of American History, which, for a 
quarter of a century, by a subtle undertow, has been drifting 
from its place. I have attempted to write the Life of Major 
General Israel Putnam by the light and with the evidences of 
tbs last century, and not by the false lights of 1875. Whether 
I have succeeded in this purpose, the intelligent reader must 
judge. 

In the preparation of this volume, I have had, for my 
assistance, first of all and chief of all. Force's "American 
Archives." Here we find the old revolutionary papers and 
documents, in every form and variety. To these volumes I 
have turned continually for original and reliable information. 
Next in importance has been the " Siege of Boston," by Rich- 
ard Frothingham, Esq. This volume contains, unquestionably, 
the most full and careful collection of facts and incidents 
which we have, covering the period from the battle of Lex- 
ington, April 19th, 1775, to the Evacuation of Boston by the 
British troops, March 17th, 1776. For the early life of Put- 
nam, most important information has been drawn from the vol- 
umes of Charles W. Upham, Esq., entitled " History of Witch- 
craft and Salem Village." Israel Putnam's birth-place was on 
the very ground covered by Mr. Upham's graphic narrative. 
In this same department, much valuable assistance has been 
gained from the "History of the Danvers Church," by Rev. 
Charles B. Rice. The " Life of General Israel Putnam," writ- 



4 Preface. 

ten by General David Humphreys of New Haven, one of 
General Putnam's Aids, has been constantly at hand, for refer- 
ence. This work was first published about 1790, but was 
afterwards brought out in a new edition in 18 18, with an 
Appendix by Colonel Samuel Swett of Boston. Colonel Dan- 
iel Putnam's vindication of his father, in his reply to General 
Dearborn, as also his valuable paper published in the first 
volume of the " Connecticut Historical Collections," have been 
often consulted. For the period immediately after Putnam's 
removal to Connecticut (1739), the writer has been greatly 
assisted by Miss Ellen Larned's new " History of Windham 
County," Connecticut. I have had, for constant reference, 
the compilation of Bunker Hill authorities, found in the 
"Historical Magazine" for June, 1868, prepared by its editor, 
Henry B. Dawson, Esq. In the same connection, free use has 
been made of the carefully prepared and extended list of authori- 
ties on this subject, recently furnished by Justin Winsor, Esq., 
Superintendent of the Boston Public Library. I have also 
turned frequently to the smaller histories of the Battle 
of Bunker Hill, by Rev. George E. Ellis, D.D.; Samuel A. 
Drake, Esq.; W. W. Wheildon, Esq. ; and Col. Francis J. Par- 
ker. Valuable information has been gained from the pub- 
lished Memorial Address, by Rev. L. Grosvenor, given at the 
gathering of the Putnam family at Putnam, Connecticut, in 
1855. Bancroft's " History of the United States " has been all 
the while near at hand, for reference. 

But in addition to these helps, I have received valuable 
hints and suggestions, as also more extended information, from 
Miss Susan Putnam, who now owns and occupies the house at 
Danvers where General Putnam was born ; from Prof. Benja- 
min Silliman, of New Haven ; from J. Hammond Trumbull, 
LL. D., of Hartford; from Hon. Daniel P. Tyler, late of 
Brooklyn, Connecticut ; from E. P. Hayward, Esq., Town Clerk 
of Pomfret, Connecticut; from Rev. Edwin S. Beard, present 
pastor of the church in Brooklyn, Connecticut; from Rev. 
Henry A. Hazen, of Billerica, Massachusetts ; and from John 
Ward Dean, Esq., of Boston. 



Preface. 5 

Chapter XI., entitled " The testimony of Bunker Hill Litera- 
ture and Art," is especially devoted to the question. Who com- 
manded in the Battle of Bunker Hill ? The same question is 
raised and discussed at other points in the narrative, but not 
continuously — only partially, according to the suggestions 
made by passing facts and events. 

I am well aware that this volume will disturb some of 
the modern literature pertaining to the Battle of Bunker 
Hill. It is not from delight in controversy for controversy's 
sake ; but believing as I sincerely do, that this most impor- 
tant chapter in our revolutionary historj' has been gradually 
warped, and turned aside from truth and righteousness, I 
have sought simply to make "crooked things straight." 

INCREASE N. TARBOX. 
West Newton, Feb. nth, 1876. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

HIS ANCESTRY AND EARLY HOME. 

Ancient Salem. — Salem Village, now Danvers. — Mr. Upham's graphic 
Pictures of the early Society. — Character and Standing of the Put- 
nam Family. — Customs among the early Settlers. — Birth-place of 
Israel Putnam. — History of the House. — Education and Schools 
in Salem Village. — Emigration from Massachusetts Towns to Con- 
necticut. — Putnam prepares to remove. — Plis Marriage to Hannah 
Pope II 

CHAPTER II. 

REMOVES TO POMFRET, CT. 

Settlement of Woodstock, Ct, by Colonists from Roxbury. — Land Pur- 
chases and Speculations. — Settlement of Pomfret. — Captain Black- 
well. — Mortlake Manor. — Original Plan given up. — Gov. Belcher 
and his Purchase. — Israel Putnam and John Pope buy of Gov. 
Belcher. — Character of Pomfret Population. — The Wolf Story as 
told by Miss Earned. — Mortlake Parish. — Vigorous Farming. . . 34 

CHAPTER III. 

GOES TO THE FRENCH WAR. 

Bancroft's Idea of the French and Indian War. — Call for Men in 1755. — 
Putnam raises a Company and becomes its Captain. — Names of his 
Children. — Rendezvoustat Albany. — Fort Edward. — First Battle. — 
One of the Rangers. — British Pride and Pomp. — Taken Prisoner. — 
Constant Exposures. — Is chosen Major. — Invasion of Canada. — 
West Indies. — Close of French War. — Returns to Pomfret in 1764, 
a Colonel 5° 

7 



8 Contents. 

CHAPTER IV. 

ELEVEN YEARS OF HOME LIFE. 

Death of his Wife. — Selectman and Moderator of Town-meeting. — 
Joins the Church. — Watching the Movements of the British Gov- 
ernment. — The Stamp Act. — The Sugar Act. — The Boston Port 
Bill. — Early Remonstrances from Connecticut. — Growing Excite- 
ments. — False Alarm in September, 1774. — Colonel Deming's Ora- 
tion. — News from Lexington. — Ride to Cambridge and Concord. . 66 

CHAPTER V. 

THE ARMY THAT GATHERED AT CAMBRIDGE. 

False and pernicious Conceptions of this Army. — Was it " Four Armies " 
or one "American Army".' — Assortment of Troops. — Putnam a 
Brigadier-General. — Exchange of Prisoners. — Battle of Chelsea. — 
March of the Army around Charlestown and over Bunker Hill. — 
What is a Council of War? — Spirit of Massachusetts. — Generals 
and Colonels at Cambridge and Vicinity. ...... 87 

CHAPTER VI, 

LEADING OFFICERS OF THIS ARMY. 

Artemas Ward. — John Thomas. — Joseph Spencer. — Seth Pomeroy. — 
William Heath. — Nathaniel Greene. — Joseph Warren. — Israel Put- 
nam. — The Colonels and their subsequent Promotions. — Who was 
the most popular Officer ? — Who would most naturally lead in any 
bold Military Enterprise ? 105 

CHAPTER VII. 

PREPARATIONS FOR THE BATTLE. 

Action of Committee of Safety. — Council of War. — Relations of Put- 
nam and Prescott to the projected Movement. — Night Detachment. — 
Night Council. — Forces detailed to take Part in the Battle the next 
Day. — From Connecticut. — From New Hampshire. — From Massa- 
chusetts. 130 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE FORENOON OF JUNE SEVENTEENTH. 

Putnam's Desire to fortify Bunker Hill. — Ward does not send the prom- 
ised Reinforcements. — Scene at the Redoubt, and its Moral. — Con- 



Contents. 9 

struction of the Fence Line. — Arrival of two hundred New Hampshire 
Men. — Stark's and Reed's Regiments. — Coming of Warren upon the 
Field. — Lateness of the Massachusetts Reinforcements. . . . 151 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE BATTLE. 

Description of Bunker Hill and its Surroundings. — Landing of the 
British, and Plan of Attack. — ^ First Assault and its Consequences. — 
Burning of Charlestown. — Second Assault. — Interval. — Change of 
Plan. — Reinforcements. — The Redoubt Carried. — The Retreat — 
Killed and Wounded 183 



CHAPTER X. 

WHO LED THE ARMY FROM THE FIELD .? 

Condition of a defeated Army. — What became of the American Army 
after the Battle. — Prescott goes to Cambridge. — Fortifications on 
Prospect Hill. — Daniel Putnam and Mrs. Inman. — Diary of Mr. 
Haskell. . 207 

CHAPTER XI. 

TESTIMONY OF BUNKER HILL LITERATURE AND ART. 

Art. — Three Pictures. — Mr. Dawson. — Early Notices of the Battle, 
American and English. — General Dearborn and the Controversy of 
1818. — What was its Import ? — " Siege of Boston." — Frothingham. — 
Bancroft. — Irving. — The Question of To-day a new and modern 
one. — Mr. Frothingham's later Pupils. 216 

CHAPTER XII. 

FOUR YEARS MORE OF ARMY LIFE. 

Putnam chosen to be near Washington. — Honored and trusted by 
Him. — Operations during the Summer and Autumn of 1775, and fol- 
lowing Winter. — Occupation of Dorchester Heights, March 5th. — 
Evacuation of Boston, March 17th. — Putnam in full Command at 
New York. — Letters. — Battle of Long Island. — Sent to Philadel- 
phia. — Headquarters on the Hudson. — Ride down the Stone Steps. — 
Struck with Paralysis, 1779. — Compelled to leave the Army. . . 281 



lO Contents. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

CLOSING YEARS. 

Returns to Pomfret, Connecticut. — Sore Disappointment. — His cheerful 
Resignation. — His manner of Life. — Letter from Washington. — 
Some Estimates of his Character, and the Results of his warlike Activ- 
ity. — Sudden Death in 1790. — His Funeral. — His Tomb. . . 318 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE BUxMKER HILL CENTENNIAL. 

Spirit of the Day. — Commendable Action on the Part of Massachusetts 
and Boston. — Efforts of Individuals to make it a Day for Prescott's 
Glory. — Outward Beauty of the Day. — The Military Review in the 
Morning. — The Procession. — Incidents 332 

APPENDIX. 

A. — Address of Col. Henry C. Deming 343 

B. — Letters of Col. John Trumbull and Daniel Putnam. . . 350 

C. — British Accounts of the Battle 353 

D. — Letters from Prof. Benjamin Silliman 362 

E. — Articles of Hon. John Lowell in 1818 367 

F. — "North American Review," July, 1818 — Daniel Webster. . 375 



LIFE OF ISRAEL PUTNAM. 



CHAPTER I. 

HIS ANCESTRY AND EARLY HOME. 

Ancient Salem. — Salem Village, now Danvers. — Mr. Upham's graphic 
Pictures of the early Society. — Character and Standing of the Putnam 
Family. — Customs among the early Settlers. — Birth-place of Israel 
Putnam. — History of the House. — Education and Schools in Salem 
Village. — Emigration from Massachusetts Towns to Connecticut — 
Putnam prepares to remove. — His Marriage to Hannah Pope. 

WITHIN the last few years, many signs have indicated 
that, for the interests of individual justice, as also for 
historical truth and accuracy, there is needed another biog- 
raphy of General Israel Putnam. No patriot soldier in our 
revolutionary struggle bore a better name for heroic courage 
and effective leadership than he. Though he was already 
fifty-seven years of age at the very beginning of that long 
contest, and had thus reached a period when most men 
begin to look about for rest and exemption from the hard- 
ships and toils which they are willing to encounter in their 
youth, yet the story of his prodigious activities and well-nigh 
superhuman endurance, in the early years of that war, reads 
to us now almost like the exploits of some of the demi-gods 
and mythical heroes of old. There was such an abundance 
of life in him, such an overflowing energy, that his very 
presence filled other men with a courage of which they had 
not before known themselves to be possessed. During the 
war and at its close he was the second in military rank in 



12 Life of Israel Putnam. [171S-39. 

the American army, Washington only before him ; and as 
he was second in mihtary office and title, so was he in the 
enthusiastic affections of his countrymen. In 1790, having 
passed his " three-score years and ten," — full of days and 
honors, he " slept with his fathers," and the grave closed 
over as pure and unselfish a patriot as the world often knows. 
Who could have surmised, at that time, that his name 
would ever be drawn into angry disputes, and would become 
a mark at which men would shoot their poisoned arrows } 

What the particular occasion of controversy was, when 
Michael the archangel contended with the devil about the 
body of Moses, we are not very distinctly informed. But 
the secret of that contention which has gone on over the 
grave of General Putnam is not hard to guess. Little bitter- 
nesses and jealousies among army officers were not a new 
thing in 1775, and that they have not yet ceased from the 
earth, our recent war of the Rebellion, and the still later 
European wars, abundantly testify. There are always so 
many men connected with an army that want honors and 
offices that do not strictly belong to them, that they are 
often quite unscrupulous in their methods of gaining them. 
And when this jealous controversy has once been let loose 
among men, it catches hold of new minds, where some 
inflammable material is stored up, and it may be long before 
the strife is stayed. In this general fact we have the 
fountain-head of all difficulty in this particular case. 

General Putnam, with his high and patriotic impulses, 
and with his military ability, native originality and bold 
leadership, carved out a large domain for himself in Amer- 
ican history. But he never stopped to fence it in and call 
it his own. He left it open and unprotected for others to 
forage upon, and make out of it reputations for themselves 
as best they could. 

Israel Putnam was born in the ancient town of Salem, 



Mr. 1-2 1.] Hts Ancestry and Early Home. 13 

Mass., on the 7th of January, 171 8. The original territory 
of Salem was very large, embracing a tract of wild country, 
out of which many of the surrounding towns, as they now 
exist, have been organized. The first church in the Massa- 
chusetts Bay was planted at Salem in 1629, and this was 
the earliest centre of life and population opened under the 
Massachusetts Bay charter. 

John Putnam and his wife Priscilla came from England 
in 1634, bringing with them three sons : Thomas, then 
twenty-four years old ; Nathaniel, twenty ; and John, twelve. 
They took their places in the early Salem society as among 
the most worthy, intelligent and enterprising citizens. All 
the records agree in ascribing to the Putnams from the first 
an uncommon amount of energy and force of character. 
They were thrifty, forehanded men, and had the art of 
making their way in the world by honest means. 

In 1641, the head of this family had a grant made him of 
one hundred acres of land. Thomas, the eldest son, went 
for a time to reside at Lynn, and he appears in the Lynn 
records for a few years, as one of their most important 
citizens. Afterwards he came back to Salem, and through 
all his subsequent life acted a conspicuous part in the local 
affairs of the town, both civil and ecclesiastical. 

The home of the Putnams was in what is now Danvers, 
anciently called Salem Village. This was the scene of the 
witchcraft delusion in 1692. We know of no more graphic 
picture of early New England life, than that which is 
presented in the opening part of Mr. Charles W. Upham's 
two volumes, entitled, " History of Witchcraft and Salem 
Village. " While we should seriously dissent from some of 
the conclusions which he reached, at a later stage of the 
work, his description of that primitive society in the years 
before the outbreak, — its employments, its family histories, 
its institutions, its joys and sorrows, its fears and alarms, 



14 Life of Israel Putftam. [1718-39. 



its strifes and divisions, — is more deep and subtle in its 
power over the reader than any other piece of writing in 
this line with which we are acquainted. The following 
brief passage may serve to show the picturesque beauty 
and searching force of this style. It must be borne in 
mind that he is all the while unfolding the causes which 
contributed to prepare the place for that dreadful experi- 
ence of 1692. 

" Cultivation had made but a slight encroachment upon 
the wilderness. Wide, dark, unexplored forests cov- 
ered the hills, hung over the lonely roads, and frowned 
upon the scattered settlements. Persons whose lives have 
been passed where the surface has long been opened, and 
the land generally cleared, little know the power of a primi- 
tive wilderness upon the mind. There is nothing more 
impressive than its sombre shadows and gloomy recesses. 
The solitary wanderer is ever and anon startled by the 
strange mysterious sounds that issue from its hidden depths. 
The distant fall of an ancient and decayed trunk, or the 
tread of animals as they prowl over the mouldering branches 
with which the ground is strown ; the fluttering of unseen 
birds brushing through the foliage, or the moaning of the 
wind sweeping over the topmost boughs, — these all tend 
to excite the imagination and solemnize the mind. But the 
stillness of a forest is more startling and awe-inspiring than 
its sounds. Its silence is so deep as itself to become audi- 
ble to the inner soul The forests which surrounded 

our ancestors were the abode of a mysterious race of 
men, of strange demeanor and unascertained origin. The 
aspects they presented, the stories told of them, and every 
thing connected with them served to awaken fear, bewilder 
the imagination, and aggravate the tendencies of the gen- 
eral condition of things to fanatical enthusiasm." * 

* Upham. Vol. I. pp. 7 and 8. 



^T. I-2I.] His Ancestry and Early Home. 15 

In the natural unfolding of his plan of work, the Putnams 
of the early generations lie directly in his path and come 
very distinctly into our view, and no man need desire for 
his ancestry a more honorable record than Mr. Upham here 
gives them. When John Putnam, the founder, died in 
1662, he left a large estate to be divided among his three 
sons. " Thomas, the eldest, as was then the custom, 
inherited a double share of his father's lands. He was of 
age when he came to America, and had received a good 
education." We have spoken of his residence for some 
years in Lynn. We find in the Massachusetts Colonial 
Records the following item for 1645, and substantially the 
same, year by year, for three years afterwards : " Thomas 
Lay ton, Edward Bircham and Thomas Putnam are chosen 
to end small controversies in Linn." His grandson was 
chosen to end a much larger controversy a hundred and 
thirty years later. But of this Thomas, Upham says : 
" Upon removing to Salem, he was chosen, as the town 
records show, to the office of constable. This was consid- 
ered at that time, as quite a distinguished position, carrying 
with it a high authority, covering the whole executive local 

administration He seems to have been a person of 

a quieter temperament than his younger brothers, and led a 
somewhat less stirring life. Possessing a large property by 
inheritance, he was not quite so active in increasing it, but 
enjoying the society and friendship of the leading men, 
lived a more retired life." 

Nathaniel Putnam, the next son, had a fourth part of his 
father's estate, and his wife also brought him seventy-five 
acres of land. Mr. Upham says of him, " Nathaniel 
Putnam was a deputy to the General Court, and constantly 
connected with all the interests of the community. He 
had great business activity and ability, and was a person of 
extraordinary powers of mind, of great energy and skill in 



1 6 Life of Israel Putnam. [1718-39. 

the management of affairs, and of singular sacagity, acumen 
and quickness of perception. He died July 23, 1700, 
leaving a numerous family and a large estate." * 

Of John, the youngest son, he says, "John Putnam 
had the same indefatigable activity as Nathaniel. He w^as 
often deputy to the General Court, and accumulated a very 
great landed property." f To show the standing of these 
three men, as to property in 1 681, he finds that of a tax 
levied that year in Salem Village, of ;^200 total, raised 
from ninety-four tax-payers, for the support of the local 
church, Thomas Putnam pays £\o 6s. -^d., Nathaniel, £() 
los., and John, £d>, so that these three pay nearly a seventh 
part of the whole tax. 

A custom worthy to have been perpetuated prevailed 
among some of these early families of Salem Village, and is 
thus described by Mr. Upham : 

"These brothers (Thomas, Nathaniel and John Putnam), as 
well as many others of the large land-holders in the village, 
adopted the practice of giving to their sons and sons-in-law, out- 
right, by deed, good farms, as soon as they became heads of 
families ; so that as the fathers advanced in life, their own es- 
tates were gradually diminished ; and when unable any longer 
to take an active part in managing their lands, they divided up 
their whole remaining real estate, making careful contracts with 
their children for an adequate maintenance, to the extent of 

their personal wants and comforts In his last years, 

John Putnam (who, as we have seen, paid £Z tax in 168 1) was 
on the rate-list for five shillings only, while all his sons and 

daughters were assessed severally in large sums Where 

this practice was followed, there were few quarrels in families 
over the graves of parents, and controversies seldom arose 
about the provisions of wills. In some cases no wills were 
needed to be made. It is apparent, that, in many respects, this 

* Upham. Vol. I. p. 157. t IbiA 



Mr. I-2I.] Hts Ancestry and Early Home. 17 

was a wise and good practice. It was moreover a strictly just 
one. As the sons were growing to an adult age they added by 
their labors to the value of lands, inserted a property into them 
that was truly their own ; and their title was duly recognized. 
In a new country, land has but little value in itself ; the value is 
imparted by the labor that clears it and prepares it to yield its 
products." * 

To go back now to Thomas Putnam, After a few years' 
residence in Lynn, he returned to Salem Village to dwell 
among his kindred. While living in Lynn he married his 
first wife, Ann Holyoke. She was of that family which, 
two generations later, gave Edward Holyoke to be Presi- 
dent of Harvard College, holding the ofifice for the long 
period of thirty-two years (1737-69). This wife died in 
1665, and in the following year he married the widow of 
Nathaniel Veren. This Nathaniel Veren had been a mer- 
chant trader, with business upon the sea, and his widow, in 
her marriage to Thomas Putnam in 1666, brought to him a 
large property to be added to his own landed estate. She 
had wealth in Jamaica and Barbadoes, and the union of these 
two streams gave a real opulence for that generation to 
this household. Thomas Putnam had two sons by his first 
wife, and one by his second. These were Edward and 
Joseph Putnam. He died in 1686, leaving large estates to 
each of these sons, and not forgetting a faithful servant, to 
whom he gave fifteen acres of valuable land. 

From the organization of the old church in Salem, 
(the oldest in the Massachusetts Bay,) under the care of 
Mr. Francis Higginson and Mr. Samuel Skelton, in 
1629, down to the year 1671, all these scattered dwellers 
for many miles around went through the forest by-paths 
and over the stony hills to Salem harbor, to attend meeting. 
Mr. Higginson died in one year after the founding of that 

* Upham. Vol. I. p. 158. 

2 



1 8 Life of Israel Putnam. [1718-39. 

church, and Mr. Skelton in five years. But Mr. Roger 
Williams, and Hugh Peters and others, had preached there 
in the early years, and in 1660, Mr. John Higginson, son 
of the first minister, came back from Connecticut, where 
he had already been twenty-four years in the ministerial 
work, and was set over this ancient church, and continued 
in office forty-eight years, making his whole ministerial life 
seventy-two years. In 1 671, the scattered population to the 
north and north-west, living upon the farms, had so increased 
that a branch church was opened at Salem Village, not far 
from the present church in Danvers. This continued as a 
branch church until 1689, when it was organized as an inde- 
pendent church. Of this branch church, Edward Putnam, 
son of Thomas, was the first deacon, holding office for 
forty years. In his eightieth year, he gave this compre- 
hensive summary of the Putnam family, which we quote 
from Mr. Upham : " From the three brothers proceeded 
twelve males; from these twelve males, forty males; and 
from these forty males, eighty-two males ; there were none 
of the name of Putnam in New England, but those from 

this family I can say with the Psalmist, I have 

been young and now am old ; yet have I not seen the 
righteous forsaken, nor their seed begging bread, except of 
God, who provides for all. For God hath given to the 
generation of my fathers a generous portion, neither poverty 
nor riches." 

It does not consist with our plan that we should turn 
aside to depict the terrible scenes that agitated and afflicted 
these lonely and scattered homes in the year 1692. That 
story, one of the saddest in our New England annals, may 
be read elsewhere, and especially in this work of Mr. 
Upham. But we will give one fragment, not from Mr. 
Upham's volumes, but from the " History of the Danvers 
Church," by Rev. Charles B. Rice. As this concerns a 



jet. 1-2 1.] IIzs Ancestry and Early Home. 19 

member of the Putnam family, it will be akin to our general 
purpose. 

At the 200th anniversary of this ancient church (reckon- 
ing from its first existence as a branch church) Mr. David 
Stiles of Middleton, one of the speakers, gave the follow- 
ing incident, which most forcibly illustrates these terrible 
scenes of 1692. He said: 

" I will relate a little story that has never been in print, show- 
ing our intimate connection nearly two hundred years ago. At 
the time of the witchcraft excitement, in 1692, a sister of Joseph 
Putnam .... and aunt of the famous General Israel Putnam, 
had a wish, like many others at that time, to see the proceedings 
of the court, then held in the first meeting-house, a little east of 
where we are now assembled. But as she entered the house she 
was accused of witchcraft. The officers of the law were advised 
by Mr. Parris not to arrest her until the trial then going on was 
closed. Meanwhile the poor girl fled to the house of Bray Wil- 
kins, living under the brow of Will's Hill. She took her weary 
and anxious way through the swamps, among the thorns of the 
wilderness, fording Ipswich River, leaving behind one or both 
shoes, lost in the mud ; and with her clothing nearly torn from 
her body, she entered the house of this well-known good man. 
But the officers were already on her track, and were soon seen 
on the plain land below. Again she ran with bleeding feet to 
the dismal locality at the head of Middleton Pond ; and there 
among the thorns and briers, wild beasts and reptiles, she 
secreted herself till the search was given up." * 

We return now to the other son of Thomas, Joseph 
Putnam, who, like his brother Edward, had inherited a large 
estate from his father. Joseph Putnam was the son of the 
second wife, the Widow Veren. He was born in 1670, and 
at the age of twenty was married to Elizabeth Porter, 
daughter of Israel Porter, the bride being then sixteen 

* Rice's "History of Danvers Church," p. 217. 



20 Life of Israel Putnam. [1718-39. 

years and six months old. Upham says of this bridegroom 
and bride, " We shall see what a valuable citizen he became ; 
and she was worthy of him, A large and noble family of 
children grew up to honor them, one of the youngest of 
whom ^2ls, Isj-ael Putnam, of illustrious revolutionary fame." 

There has sometimes been a kind of slur or secret insin- 
uation, that General Putnam was of plebeian origin and of 
an obscure family. But if there was any family in Massachu- 
setts, at the beginning of the last century, more worthy to 
give birth to one of the great revolutionary heroes than 
this, we fail to discover where it had its dwelling-place. By 
that time the Putnams, having done a large share in break- 
ing into the primitive wilderness, and subduing the rough 
and rocky soil that lay about Salem, began, as Upham says, 
" to give their sons to the general service of the country in 
conspicuous public stations, and in the professional walks of 
life. Their names appear on the page of history and in the 
catalogues of the colleges." Daniel Putnam, a grandson of 
Nathaniel, heads the list of college graduates of this name, 
and he became the minister of North Reading. The tri- 
ennial catalogue of Harvard alone shows more than twenty- 
five graduates from this stock, and other colleges would 
swell this list very considerably. If any other Massachu- 
setts family can present from the early years a more honest 
and solid basis of dignity than this, it has liberty to propose 
its claim. 

The house in which Israel Putnam was born, and where 
his father Joseph lived, is fortunately still standing. The 
very chamber in which he first saw the light may still be 
seen in something of its old-fashioned simplicity. This 
house is believed by Mr. Upham (who has explored the 
antiquities of this locality as no other man has) to have 
been built by Thomas Putnam in 1648, about the time of 
his returning from Lynn to Salem. Very large additions 



iET. I-2I.] His Ancestry and Early Home. 21 

have since been made to it, but with rare good taste and 
judgment, the original structure has been kept in a great 
measure intact. One can easily trace the ancient dimen 
sions, and look upon the roughly hewn timbers of the prim- 
itive frame. It stands only two or three minutes' walk 
from the " Swan's Crossing" depot, on the Salem and Law- 
rence Railroad. It is at the crossing of the roads, where 
the old Newburyport turnpike intersects one of the Dan- 
vers roads. It is in the immediate vicinity of that immense 
and almost bewildering structure which the State of Massa- 
chusetts is now erecting in Danvers, as a new and additional 
Insane Hospital. Looking from the door of this Putnam 
mansion, westerly, this gigantic construction nearly one- 
third of a mile in length, ranging along the crest of the 
ancient " Hathorne Hill," is in full view, less than half a 
mile distant. 

But this ancient house received large additions in 1744, 
and again in 183 1, so that now, while it is antique and 
venerable in its appearance, the rooms are numerous, spa- 
cious and comfortable. The barns and outlying buildings 
show at once to the passer-by that this has long been a 
scene of thrift and industry. It is an ancient New Eng- 
land farm-house of the better quality. But the interest of 
the visitor centres about that original structure, still so 
clearly traceable. And his wonder is excited, when he sees 
with his own eyes what was regarded as a house of a high 
class and order in New England, more than two hundred 
years ago. Hardly any man in Salem Village was in a con- 
dition to build a better house than Thomas Putnam in 
1648. Here he lived with his first wife, Ann Holyoke, and 
with his second wife, the rich widow of Nathaniel Veren, " en- 
joying the society and friendship of the leading men " of 
Salem. And yet this ancient structure does not make cer- 
tainly more than a third part, if even so much, of the present 



22 Life of Israel Putnam. [1718-39. 

farm-house. It was called of two stories, and was so, but 
both stories would not make more than one in some of the 
palatial residences of the present day. It faced toward the 
east or north-east, while the present farm-house faces to 
the west or south-west, and as one passes along the present 
road, nothing is seen of the early structure. The region 
where this house stands is about six miles north-west of 
Salem Harbor, and about a mile and a half north of the old 
Salem Village (now Danvers) meeting-house. In this gen- 
eral locality in 1692, the year of the witchcraft outbreak, 
there were living upon their farms, and in separate houses, 
twelve families of the name of Putnam. And we cannot 
resist the temptation to copy one or two delightful passages 
from Mr. Upham, showing what kind of work the Putnams 
and their neighbors had wrought upon these lands. 

"Among all the achievements of human labor and persever- 
ance recorded in history, there is none more herculean than the 
opening of a New England forest to cultivation. The fables of 
antiquity are all suggestive of instruction, and infold wisdom. 
The earliest inhabitants of every wooded country, who subdued 
its wilderness, were truly a race of giants. Let any one try the 
experiment of felling and eradicating a single tree, and he will 
begin to approach an estimate of what the first English settler 
had before him, as he entered upon his work. It was not only 
a work of the greatest difficulty, calling for the greatest possible 
exercise of physical toil, strength, patience, and perseverance, 
but it was a work of years and generations. The axe swung by 
muscular arms, could one by one, fell the trees. There was no 
machinery to aid in extracting the tough roots, equal often, in 
size and spread, to the branches. The practice was to level by 
the axe a portion of the forest, managing so as to have the trees 
fall inward, early in the season. After the summer had passed 
and the fallen timber become dried, fire would be set to the 
whole tract covered by it. After it had smouldered out, there 
would be left charred trunks and stumps. The trunks would 



JEt. 1-2 1.] His Ancestry and Early Home. 23 

then be drawn together, piled in heaps, and burned again. 
Between the blackened stumps, barley or some other grain, and 
probably corn, would be planted, and the lapse of years waited 
for, before the roots would be sufficiently decayed to enable oxen 
with chains to extract them. Then the rocks and stones would 
have to be rismoved before the plough could, to any consider- 
able extent, be applied 

"The opening of a wilderness combined circumstances of 
interest which are not, perhaps, equalled in any other occupa- 
tion. It is impossible to imagine a more exhilarating or invigor- 
ating employment. It developed the muscular powers more 
equally and effectually than any other. The handling of the 

axe brought into exercise every part of the manly frame 

He who best knew how to fell a tree was justly looked upon as 
the most valuable and leading man. To bring a tall giant of 
the woods to the ground was a noble and perilous achievement. 
.... Accidents often, deaths sometimes, occurred. A skilful! 
woodman, by a glance at the surrounding trees and their 
branches, could tell where the tree upon which he was about to 
operate should fall, and bring it unerringly to the ground in the 

right direction There were elements also in the work 

that awakened the finer sentiments. The lonely and solemn 
woods are God's first temples. They are full of mystic influ- 
ences j they nourish the poetic nature ; they feed the imagina- 
tion. The air is elastic, and every sound reverberates in broken, 
strange, and inexplicable intonations. The woods are impreg- 
nated with ajaealth-giving and delightful fragrance nowhere else 
experienced. All the arts of modern luxury fail to produce an 
aroma like that which pervades a primitive forest of pines and 
spruces. Indeed, all trees in an original wilderness, where they 
exist in every stage of growth and decay, contribute to this 
peculiar charm of the woods. It was not only a manly but a 
most lively occupation. Where many were working near each 
other, the echoes of their voices of cheer, of the sharp and ring- 
ing tones of their axes, and of the heavy concussions of the fall- 
ing timber, produced a music that filled the old forests with life, 
and made labor joyous and refreshing." 



24 Life of Israel Putnam. [1718-39. 

We have thus brought into view the birth-place of our 
subject with its primitive surroundings. He was of the 
fourth generation from the beginning, reckoning John Put- 
nam the founder as the first. He was born not until twenty- 
eight years after the marriage of his father and mother, and 
was the youngest but one in a family of eleven children. At 
that time the opportunities for education were few. The 
college was doing its work at Cambridge. Ezekiel Cheever, 
the schoolmaster of seventy years' service, was busy in Con- 
necticut and Massachusetts, especially in the department of 
classical instruction. 'Others followed his example. The 
better-educated ministers could also fit boys for college. 
But the common school system, as a system, had not borne 
its better fruits in Massachusetts in the days of Israel Put- 
nam's childhood. The families were so scattered, and the 
ways so rough and lonely, that little children might not 
safely traverse them. Mr. Upham, speaking of the condi- 
tion of things in this repect, in the early days of Salem 
Village, says : " Indeed, anything like regular schools was 
rendered impossible by the then existing circumstances. 
Clearings had made a very inconsiderable encroachment on 
the wilderness. There were here and there farm-houses 
with deep forests between. It was long before easily trav- 
ersable roads could be made. A school-house placed perma- 
nently on any particular spot would be within the reach of 
but very few. Farmers most competent to the work, who 
had enjoyed the advantages of some degree of education, 
and could manage to set apart any time for the purpose, 
were, in some instances, prevailed upon to receive such 
children as were within reaching distance as pupils in their 
own houses, to be instructed by them at stated times, and 
for a limited period. Daniel Andrew rendered this service 
occasionally. At one period we find them (the people of 
Salem Village) practising the plan of a movable school and 



^T. I-2I.] His Ancestry and Early Home. 25 

schoolmaster. He would be stationed in the houses of par- 
ticular persons, with whom the arrangement could be made, 
a month at a time, in the different quarters of the village 
from Will's Hill to Bass River. Of course there was a very 
great lack of elementary education." All this refers to a 
time antecedent to 1692. How great were the advances 
which had been made between these times and the birth of 
Israel Putnam in 171 8, cannot very distinctly be told. It 
is quite possible, if he had been born and reared in that 
State which afterwards became his by adoption, he might 
have been better off as to education than in his native 
State. Before his birth, the laws in Connecticut required 
that every town or ecclesiastical parish numbering seventy 
families or upward should maintain a public school contin- 
uously the year round, for the instruction of all the chil- 
dren of the place ; and that a town or parish with less than 
seventy families should maintain such a school for half the 
year. Besides these schools there were by law maintained 
four schools at the greater centres, to be called grammar 
schools, in which Latin and Greek and some of the higher 
English studies were to be taught. But beyond the mere 
laws, there was at that time in Connecticut, as we read the 
early records, a stronger public spirit in favor of universal 
education than in Massachusetts. Laws are of little ac- 
count, unless they are lifted up and borne out by the con- 
senting and active spirit of the people. 

We get some very distinct glimpses of the state of things 
at Salem Village in the early times, as to this matter of 
schools, from Rev. Charles B. Rice's history of the church. 
He says : "The first reference to the subject which I have 
noticed in the parish records is for the year 1 701, when it was 
voted : ' That Mr. Joseph Herrick and Mr. Joseph Putnam 
and John Putnam, Jr., are chosen and empowered to agree 
with some suitable person to be a schoolmaster among us, 



26 Life of Israel Putnam. [1718-39. 

in some convenient time ; and make returns therefor to the 
people.' These men were the first school committee in 
our town. It is doubtful, however, if with this committee 
the ' convenient time ' for hiring a teacher ever in fact 
came. The passage of such a vote in one of these meet- 
ings, it must be said, does not of necessity signify accom- 
plishment. Money was of right to be expected, and was 
afterward received from the town of Salem, where their 
taxes were paid. And the next mention of the matter is 
eleven years later, at which time a committee was appointed 
to receive whatever might be furnished by the selectmen 
of Salem. And they were directed with this money to 
make payment to ' ye Widow Daland of five pounds which 
is her due for keeping school in ye village formerly ; ' and 
also ' to invite her to come and keep school in ye village 
again, and to engage her five pounds a year for two years, 
or that money which is granted to us by the town for a 
school.' Nearly a year later there is a receipt signed by 
' Katharin Daland ' for this five pounds, due ' for keeping 
school at Salem Villig, at the school-house near Mr. 
Green's.' " 

This Mr. Green was then the minister of the parish, and 
Mr. Rice has culled some extracts from a^ diary he kept, 
which shows what was passing in his mind in these distant 
years. Under date of March 22, 1708, he says: 

" I went into ye Town Meeting [/. e. a meeting of the inhab- 
itants of the village], and said to this effect: Neighbours, I am 
about building a school-house for the good education of our chil- 
dren, and have spoken to several of our neighbours who are will- 
ing to help it forward, so that I hope we shall quickly finish it ; 
and I speak of it here so that every one that can have any bene- 
fit may have opportunity for so good a service. Some replyed 
that it was a new thing to them, and they desired to know where 
it should stand, and what the design of it was. To them I 



^T. I-2I.] His Ancestry and Early Home. 2^ 

answered that Deacon Ingersoll would give land for it to stand 
on, at the upper end of the Training field, and that J designed to 
have a good schoolmaster to teach their children to read and 
write and cypher and every thing that is good. Many com- 
mended the design, and none objected to it. 

" March 25. Began to get timber for school-house." * 

Altogether, this is not a very promising outlook for popu- 
lar education in the year 1708, Where the principles and 
habits for the general education of the children and youth 
have taken no deeper root than is here indicated, a boy born 
ten years later, a mile and a half away from the school-house 
which this good minister seems mainly to have built out of 
his own pocket, will not come under any very strong and 
constraining system of popular education. 

But when we turn to the Massachusetts laws on this sub- 
ject, the aspect is much better than in this actual view of 
the condition of the people at Salem Village. As early as 
1642 it became a law in the Massachusetts Bay Colony 
that every township in the jurisdiction, after the Lord had 
increased it to fifty householders, shall appoint one within 
the town to teach such children as should resort thither, to 
read and write, etc. And it was made incumbent upon the 
town authorities to see that the children were not neglected 
in this matter of education. In 1683, it was provided that 
whenever a town has five hundred families, two grammar 
schools should be supported. In 1689, it became a law that 
all towns of fifty families should keep a school at least six 
months, and all towns of over two hundred families should 
have a grammar school. But we do not discover in the 
early laws of Massachusetts on this subject one provision 
that early in the last century was introduced in Connecti- 
cut, viz., that parishes should be reckoned in this respect 
as towns. This was the difficulty in the ancient Salem 
* "History of Danvers Church," pp. 57 and 58. 



28 Life of Israel Putnam. [1718-39. 

Village. It did not become the town of Danvers until 
1757. It was a part of Salem. Doubtless there was a good 
school in Salem, but these people were too far away to be 
able to avail themselves of it, and the law did not compel 
them to maintain a separate school. 

We will not, however, throw all the blame in the case of 
Israel Putnam upon the Massachusetts laws, or upon the 
spirit of the people. It is certain that the early education 
of young Putnam was in some way sadly neglected, and 
there was no one in after years, who more sincerely regret- 
ted this defect than himself. It is probable that Rev. L. 
Grosvenor, one of General Putnam's descendants (who de- 
livered the memorial address at Putnam, Connecticut, in 
1855, at a meeting of the Putnam family), has given us the 
essential truth on this point. He said : 

" Putnam was a ' self-made man,' so far as that appellation 
may be applied to any human being. He was not a product of 
the schools. No schoolmaster or military chieftain could boast 
of having made hi7n. Like all such men he possessed individ- 
uality and originality, for which he owed no debts, save to 
nature. It is proof of his uncommon talents, that he acquired a 
reputation so solid with the scantiest literary attainments ; it is 
proof of his uncommon worth of character, that with all his igno- 
rance of belles lettres, and all his lack of those graces which the 
dancing-master contracts to furnish at so much per head, he 
was able to maintain such influence and popularity among 
officers accustomed to figure in the polite circles of society, and 
possessing the highest scientific attainments. But a pearl is 
precious, though encased in the roughest shell, and a diamond 
is a diamond, without any polishing from the lapidary. 

" It is altogether probable that he little valued learning in his 
boyhood. A youth of his uncommon physical vigor is apt to 
have too great a flow of animal spirits to submit cheerfully to 
confinement to books, or to have any very profound respect for 
the pedagogue. He likes the schoolmaster better when he is 



Mr. 1-2 1.] Hzs Ancestry and Early Home. 29 

abroad than when he is mousing round on tiptoe among the 
school benches. There is every reason to believe that the pecu- 
niary circumstances of his family were sufficient to have given 
him a good education had he been disposed to study. [There 
is more of doubt in this last sentence than is needed. His 
father, Joseph Putnam, as we have seen was a man of large 
estate.] But he loved the tangled and howling forest, better 
than the tame and close-trimmed groves of the academy. His 
handwriting proves clearly that he left school forever just after 
manufacturing, with great labor, a few copies of the longest sized 
'pot-hooks,' and long before he had attained the dignity of 
'small-hand.' It is, like himself, remarkable for broad plain- 
ness rather than clerkly elegance. His spelling, too, is evi- 
dently all done upon the phonographic principle, entirely unham- 
pered by the arbitrary rules of the dictionaries. He was conse- 
quently during all his military life conscious and ashamed of 
his ignorance of letters. He carried on all his military corre- 
spondence with the aid of amanuenses, that his ignorance might 
be exposed to the world as little as possible. He took care to 
impress on all his children the necessity of education, and gave 
them the best the country afEorded." 

It is impossible at this late day to gather out of the 
remote and misty past many incidents of Putnam's early 
childhood. We can infer from his very nature, that among 
the boys of the neighborhood he was the mOst active and 
daring, "ready," as was said of him afterward, "to lead 
where any would follow. " General David Humphreys of 
New Haven, who was one of General Putnam's Aids in the 
war of the Revolution, and who wrote the earliest biogra- 
phy of him, has preserved one small anecdote which is 
highly natural and probable. He went to Boston, when a 
boy (probably with some of his kindred), and while there a 
bigger Boston boy began chafRng him on his rustic appear- 
ance, and seemed willing to pick a quarrel. Israel stood it 
for a while, but at length turned to and gave his insulter a 
sound flogging, to the great delight of the lookers-on. 



30 Life of Israel Putnam. [1718-39. 

Early marriages and the formation of new households 
were at that time in order. Land was abundant, and with 
resolute hearts and hands accustomed to toil, the young 
men of that day were encouraged to strike out for them- 
selves and help to subdue and populate the country. We 
have seen that Israel's father was only twenty and his 
mother sixteen when they were married. And so, in turn, 
when Israel had reached the age of twenty he was united 
in marriage to Hannah Pope, daughter of Joseph Pope of 
Salem Village, she being but seventeen. This marriage 
took place in 1738.* He was the son of Joseph Putnam, 
and she was the daughter of Joseph Pope, so that it was 
necessary to go beyond the initials in indicating those 
names. In the very year of this marriage, Israel Putnam 
and his young wife were evidently getting ready to emi- 
grate.! For in that year (1738) he sold to his brother 

* There is some doubt about the date of Putnam's marriage. Upham puts 
it in 1739, and it is quite generally so stated. But the Putnam family have 
some records and traditions that point to 1738. It is not a matter of any 
special consequence in which year he was married. 

t To show how the Putnams have abounded in this their ancestral home, a 
few striking facts may be given. Mr. Upham says : " Though there were 
descendants of this family in every company of emigrants that went from 
Salem Village, in all directions, in every generation, .... there is about as 
large a proportionate representation of the name within the precincts of Salem 
Village to-day as there ever was. Fifty Putnams are at present (1867) voters 
in Danvers, on a list of eight hundred names." 

The following facts we compile from Rev. Mr. Rice's history of the church. 
In that volume, there came into view, in the years the history covers, 132 
different persons, male and female, of the name Putnam. These, of course, 
are not all the residents of this place, bearing this name, but are such as 
the course of his narrative brought to the light. Of the 27 persons who 
united to form the regular church in 1689, 11 were Putnams, 7 men and 4 
women. Of the 74 men who have been recording clerks in that parish, 24 
•were Putnams. Of the 23 men who have been deacons, 15 have been Putnams. 
Of the 26 treasurers, 12 have been Putnams. Of the 18 superintendents of 
the Sabbath school, 7 have been Putnams. Of the 92 pews in the meeting- 
house of 1786, 25 were bought by Putnams ; and of the 92 pews sold in 



iET. I-2I.] His Ancestry and Early Home. 31 

David the interest he had in the landed estate of his father. 
We have seen the veritable quitclaim deed which passed 
from Israel to David. It is a brown and rusty document, 
but exceedingly well-preserved. For the sum of seven hun- 
dred pounds and nineteen shillings, he releases to David in 
part the title and interest in the real estate which came to 
him from his father. We do not think that Mr. Grosvenor 
is quite borne out, in the passage quoted above, as to Put- 
nam's handwriting. The signature to that deed is appar- 
ently from a hand more accustomed to handle the axe than 
the pen ; nevertheless it is a good, strong, fair signature, 
perfectly distinct, and as well written as though it had been 
executed by an average farmer of the present day. Prob- 
ably he was a little more at home in signing his own name, 
than in general writing. But certainly that signature 
would not be called mean and coarse in any generation of 
New England common life. 

In those years there was quite a wave of emigration from 
the towns of the Massachusetts Bay to Eastern Connecti- 
cut. Traces of this movement can easily be found in all 
the records of that period. Quite a large number of fam- 
ilies went from Salem. Lynn was also sending out little 
colonies. The valley of the Connecticut River had been early 
occupied by movements from the Massachusetts Bay. In 
1635 and '36, the towns of Windsor, Hartford and Wethers- 
field were formed by colonies moving from Dorchester, 
Cambridge and Watertown. The region along the shore of 
Long Island Sound was also taken possession of at an early 
date. New Haven, Milford, Guilford and other shore towns 
are only a very few years younger than Salem and Boston 
and Charlestown. 

the meeting-house of 1806,21 were bought by Putnams. Of the 11 persons 
who met to organize the first Sabbath school in 1818, and to become the 
first teachers, 6 were Putnams. 



32 Life of Israel Putnam. [1718-39. 

But in Eastern Connecticut, along the shores of the 
Quinebaug and its tributary streams, there was a region 
of fine farming land which had not so soon come into the 
market. If one rides at this day here and there through 
the ancient township of Pomfret when the summer glory 
is on those Connecticut hills, he will be impressed with the 
richness and beauty of those fields — mowing-lands and 
corn-lands — as they spread out in wide, sloping ranges 
before his eye. Probably no stranger ever rode from the 
present town of Putnam up to the old Pomfret Centre and 
through it without being surprised at finding among those 
hills farms so full of richness and so attractive to the eye. 

This country was not exactly new in 1739. The lands 
which Putnam bought in that region in that year were not 
wild lands strictly speaking, as will be seen by the price 
which he paid for them. Woodstock, just to the north 
(anciently belonging to Massachusetts), had had a settled 
ministry since 1686. Pomfret had enjoyed preaching, with 
rude accommodations, since 171 3, but its first meeting- 
house was erected in 1734. The lands in that general 
locality had acquired quite a marketable value before Put- 
nam went there. But we will not in the present chapter 
speak particularly of them. 

Before closing, however, we desire to make a somewhat 
fuller and more exact reference to the Pope family, out of 
which young Israel Putnam had selected his wife. The 
home of the Popes was some four miles away from his, to 
the south-west, toward Lynn, and not very far off from the 
border line. The house belonging to the Popes was orig- 
inally occupied by Mr. Edward Norris, minister at Old 
Salem in 1640. Of this house Mr. Upham says : " Orig- 
inally given as an ordination present to a minister of the 
old town, it has after the lapse of two hundred and twenty- 
six years come round into the hands of another. The house 



^T. I-2I.] His Ancestry and Early Home. 33 

in which the Popes lived one hundred and twenty-nine 
years, and the famiHes that succeeded them for about half 
a century more, — a venerable and picturesque specimen of 
the rural architecture in its best form of the earliest times, 
— has within the last ten years given place to a new one 
on the same spot. In that old house, besides unnumbered 
and unknown instances of the same sort, Israel Putnam 
conducted his courtship " 



CHAPTER II. 

REMOVES TO POMFRET, CT. 

Settlement of Woodstock, Ct., by Colonists from Roxbury. — Land Pur- 
chases and Speculations. — Settlement of Pomfret. — Captain Blackwell. 
— Mortlake Manor. — Original Plan given up. — Gov. Belcher and his 
Purchase, — Israel Putnam and John Pope buy of Gov. Belcher. — Char- 
acter of Pomfret Population. — The Wolf Story as told by Miss Lamed. — 
Mortlake Parish. — Vigorous Farming. 

IN the closing part of the last chapter we referred to 
Putnam's plan for emigration, about the time of his mar- 
riage to Hannah Pope. It was some fifty years before this, 
as early indeed as 1684, that there began to be a move- 
ment in the older portions of the Massachusetts Bay Col- 
ony to purchase and take possession of the wild lands of 
Eastern Connecticut. Almost at the same time the valley 
and shore towns of Connecticut were reaching eastward, 
as the Massachusetts towns were westward, to take up and 
occupy this wilderness tract. The first thoroughly organ- 
ized plan started in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1683. The 
purpose of this volume will not permit us to go minutely 
into these matters, but if any one wishes to study all the 
details of these emigrations and their after results, he may 
find them most carefully and fully stated in Miss Ellen 
Larned's new " History of Windham County, Connecti- 
cut," — a volume that may be referred to as a model in 
the department of local histories. It took two or three 
years after the beginning of this organized movement, 
before the pioneers were ready to move in a body. But 
individuals had been back and forth from time to time; 

34 



yET. 2I-37-] Removes to Pomfret, Ct. 35 

the tract to be settled had been fixed upon, and in some 
measure laid out ; and in the year 1686, forty men, mostly 
from the town of Roxbury, with their wives and children, 
moved through the wilderness and appeared on the hills of 
what is now the town of Woodstock, next north of Pom- 
fret. When these pilgrims had passed the town of Med- 
way, the rest of the way was a wilderness. About the 
same time the present town of Windham, the county-seat 
of Windham County, was settled by companies coming 
from the older towns of Connecticut. Settlements were 
made soon afterwards in districts now known as the towns 
of Thompson, Killingly and Canterbury. 

Not much progress was made in the settlement of Pom- 
fret until the beginning of the last c.entury, though as early 
as 1684 Major Fitch, also of Roxbury, had purchased this 
territory as wild land. After the Woodstock settlers had 
planted themselves firmly in their new habitation, they 
began to tell their old Massachusetts friends and neighbors 
" of a fair land stretching southward into Connecticut," and 
in 1686 Major Fitch sold to six men, all of Roxbury, 15,- 
000 acres of wilderness land for the sum of £,"^0. These 
six purchasers immediately associated with themselves six 
more, so that twelve men, all of Roxbury, then owned this 
wild country. But this was not all the land included in the 
purchase which Major Fitch had made two years before. 
He still owned a large territory adjoining this, but farther 
to the south. 

In 1685, there came to Boston from England a Captain 
John Blackwell. He was a noted Puritan and a man of 
distinction. He was a son-in-law of General Lambert, who 
was closely connected with Cromwell's army, and also a 
member of Parliament during Cromwell's public adminis- 
tration. England was not a very comfortable place under 
the restored Stuarts for a man with the associations of 



36 Life of Israel Putnam. [i739-SS- 

Captain Blackwell. He had managed to keep out of the 
way during the reign of Charles II. ; but now with the com- 
ing in of James II, he did not object to have an ocean be- 
tween him and the English throne. He came over com- 
missioned by a company of Englisli and Irish dissenters to 
purchase a tract of country in America on which they 
might settle in a body. He reached Boston just when these 
land purchases and speculations in Eastern Connecticut 
were greatly occupying the thoughts of men in the Massa- 
chusetts towns. That generation was not probably so very 
different from some that have lived since, in respect to the 
excitements that may be raised by land speculations. And 
so Major Fitch traded with Captain Blackwell and sold 
him, just south of the tract which the Roxbury men had 
bought, 5,750 acres, which constituted the south-east corner 
of his (Fitch's) original purchase. Captain Blackwell was 
very desirous that this should be a territory by itself, sep- 
arate and distinct, on which his colony might plant itself 
without dispossessing or interfering with any one else. And 
so he wished from the first to fix upon it a peculiar name 
which would be a little romantic in that wilderness country, 
and he called it Mortlake Manor, from the village Mortlake 
in Surrey, England, where his father-in-law General Lam- 
bert lived, and where the men of Cromwell's party used much 
to resort. Just after this purchase was completed, Sir Ed- 
mund Andros came over to New England, appointed by 
that weak and gloomy tyrant James II. Andros was a man 
exactly fit to do a tyrant's work in New England. His 
arrival suddenly cut short all Captain Blackwell's plans. 
But the reign of James was short, and when he was deposed 
and Andros recalled, there was no longer any necessity for 
Blackwell and his company to move into the western wil- 
derness. 

So matters lingered on. Years passed away. In 1707 



^T. 21-37.] Removes to Pomfret, Ct. 37 

Captain Blackwell died, and this great landed estate passed 
to his son. But this son did not wish to occupy it, and he 
sold it to Jonathan Belcher of Cambridge. This Jonathan 
Belcher was a very conspicuous figure in New England, 
from the beginning of the last century on for fifty years. 
Though of a humble family, he graduated at Harvard Col- 
lege in 1699, and soon rose into favor and success. He was 
fortunate in early winning, in some way, the smiles of the 
royal family of England, the Princess Sophia and her son 
George II. ; and so in his lifetime he was Colonial Gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New Jersey, 
and in connection with his administration in the latter 
State he became the founder of the College of New Jersey. 
Wealth and honors rolled in upon him. He appears to 
have had no objection to the purchase of this wild country, 
and probably it was a relief to the son of Captain Black- 
well to have him take it off his hands. 

Mr. Belcher through his agents undertook to break up 
and subdue portions of this territory. He also divided it 
up and called a part of it Kingswood and a part Wiltshire. 
In the course of this process of breaking and subduing, 
and making small sales, he drew some settlers on to the 
territory from whom afterwards he desired to be free. 
There was one man by the name of Jabez Utter whom he 
especially wished to have gone. He bought him out fairly 
and honestly, but just about that time Utter was arrested 
for stealing. The story of Mr. Belcher's troubles in clear- 
ing this fellow out, and especially his wife (for she had 
more power of cohesive attraction than her husband), is 
amusing, but too long to be here told. 

Not, however, to dwell upon these details at any greater 
length, by 17 14 Mr. Belcher had his matters so in hand 
that he was able to sell portions of this territory to suit 
purchasers. But as the years went on, the improvements 



38 Life of Israel Putnam. [i739-SS' 

that had been made in the lands themselves, and the pop- 
ulation that was gathering in that general region, caused 
this tract to rise in value far beyond what it was worth 
when Mr. Belcher came into possession of it. 

In 1739, Israel Putnam and John Pope {Putnam's wife's 
brother) bought of Gov. Belcher (he was made Governor of 
Massachusetts and New Hampshire in 1730) a portion of 
this old Mortlake district, in the part of it known as Wilt- 
shire, five hundred and fourteen and a half acres, for 
which they were to pay £,2,^'J2 los., about ^^5 an acre. 
But it must be borne in mind that these were not English 
pounds sterling. This debt was payable in bills of credit 
on the province of Massachusetts, and this was a sadly 
depreciated currency. The year following Putnam bought 
out his brother-in-law, and in one year more, 1741, he had 
paid for the whole tract, and the mortgage was raised. 
This is so like what we have seen of the Putnams in their 
old home in Salem Village ! There was a family thrift 
among them, from generation to generation, which no 
impediments seemed to hinder. We have seen that he had 
from his brother David £,'J00 \<^s., and how much more 
may have come from the personal estate of his father we 
do not know. It is not likely that he had any great amount 
of property with his wife, for the Popes in Salem Village, 
though of good standing and fair property, were not wealthy 
as the Putnams were. At any rate, in 1741, Israel Put- 
nam owned the whole tract of five hundred and fourteen 
acres without encumbrance.* 

* Since writing the above we have received from a member of the Putnam 
family in Danvers, a statement based upon the careful examination of the old 
records, showing that between the years 1 738-1 743 seven different parcels of 
land were sold by Israel Putnam in Salem Village, for which he received the 
round sum of ;^i,920. It is not unlikely that his father had made him pres- 
ents while he was yet in his minority, in accordance with that wise custom 
already spoken of, and as a reward for his strong and faithful industry. 



^T. 21-37.] Removes to Pomfret, Ct. 39 

This land lay in what was long known as a part of Pom- 
fret, but is now the town of Brooklyn, Connecticut. The 
traveller who passes down the Norwich and Worcester Rail- 
road, when he reaches Danielsonville, in South Killingly, 
is about three miles east from this purchase. We have 
already spoken of the beauty of the lands near the centre of 
ancient Pomfret. This Mortlake tract is perhaps not quite 
so fair and fertile, but is nevertheless of much the same 
general character. The old name Mortlake still lingers in 
that region, and is variously attached. The stranger stop- 
ping at the hotel in Brooklyn, Connecticut, finds himself at 
the Mortlake House. 

Though, as we have said, this land which Putnam owned 
was not exactly wild land, it was not, after all, very far 
removed from that condition. The main work of subduing 
it and bringing it under easy culture was yet to be done. 
Forests were to be removed ; and walls and fences were to 
be built. Much hard work was to be done, and hard work 
was what Putnam was used to, and in it he took delight. 
With his prodigious vigor, his physical strength and energy, 
obstacles that would have intimidated many quickly van- 
ished before him. At this time Pomfret had made consid- 
erable progress. But he was in the outskirts of the town, 
some miles distant from the centre. It was indeed a mat- 
ter of some uncertainty, in those early years, to what town 
this old Mortlake Manor of Captain Blackwell should 
belong. In his original purchase he had been particular to 
have it a region separate and distinct, for the sole occupa- 
tion of his colony. This idea to some extent lingered about 
it long afterwards. In 1 747 the people then living upon it 
petitioned the Legislature to be made into a separate town. 
But the request was not granted. 

But before Putnam removed to Connecticut (as early as 
1734), an ecclesiastical parish had been formed, covering not 



40 Life of Israel Putnam. [1739-55- 

only the whole of the original Mortlake Manor, but reaching 
south and embracing essentially the same territory that is 
now included in the town of Brooklyn. This at the first 
was called Mortlake Parish. For more than twenty years 
it bore this name. In 1754 this name was dropped, and it 
became the Brooklyn Parish, and in 1786, when Brooklyn 
was incorporated as a separate township, the town took its 
name from the parish. In matters ecclesiastical, therefore, 
Putnam had a distinct centre ; but in matters pertaining 
to the town, he was at first almost the same as nowhere. 

Rev. Mr. Grosvenor, to whose commemorative address 
we have already referred, thus describes the old Putnam 
farm in Pomfret, and the owner's early labors upon it : 

" This farm is situated on the summit of the high hill between 
the villages of Pomfret and Brooklyn ; and the present line of 
separation between these townships passes through this tract. 
It is nearly all fertile soil, admirably adapted to cultivation, being 
level or gently sloping. The first house he built is not now 
standing, but the spot where it stood is pointed out. There still 
lie many of the stones of the old foundation ; there is the first 
well he dug, but covered now with the modern invention of a 
platform and a chain pump. There is an old pear tree, almost 
leafless and lifeless from old age, which it is said he planted. It 
stands about a hundred yards back of the house now occupied 
by Mr. Benjamin Brown. About a quarter of a mile south-east 
of this house is another* which he built, and in it is the long, 
narrow bed-room, ancient and comfortable in its appointments, 
in which he died. The main road from Pomfret to Brooklyn 
passes through the farm, and is planted on both sides for a long 
distance with very aged apple trees, which the old men of the 
neighborhood affirm were set out by the General. From thd 
time of his arrival in Pomfret, even down to his death, he was 

* From information received from Brooklyn we judge that Mf. Grosvenor 
may have been mistaken in some of his statements concerning this second 
house. 



iEx. 2I-37-] Removes to Pomfret, Ct. 4 1 

as fond of the peaceful pursuits of agriculture and horticulture, 
as of the excitement of hairbreadth escapes in the deadly breach, 
and by flood and field. He gave great, and at that time very 
unusual, attention to the cultivation of fruit trees. His neigh- 
bors give him the credit of introducing all the best varieties into 
Pomfret and Brooklyn, and especially the famous winter apple, 
the Roxbury Russet, now so abundant here, he is said to have 
brought with him from Salem, when he first settled in Pomfret." 

For a new town planted at first in the wilderness, there 
was in Pomfret a very unusual degree of culture within a 
comparatively few years from the settlement. By the year 
1 73 1 there were over one hundred landed proprietors resi- 
dent in the town, with an exceedingly fine range of family 
names. We have given some glimpses, showing the actual 
state of things in Salem Village in respect to the general 
education of the children in the early part of the last cen- 
tury. In contrast with what was there shown, mark the 
spirit of Pomfret. She had her public school from a very 
early date. But in consequence of the scattered condition 
of the families, it was provided by the town that any num- 
ber of families might combine, according to the conven- 
ience of neighborhoods, and the selectmen had discretion- 
ary power to provide for them a separate school. In 1723 
there were three, and in 1733 four, public schools sus- 
tained at the general expense. In the very year (1739) 
in which Putnam arrived in those parts, there had actually 
been formed among these people of Pomfret, a society with 
no less a name and aim than the following : " The United 
Society or Company for Propagating Christian and Useful 
Knowledge." And lest any should suppose that these peo- 
ple were merely amusing themselves with large words, let 
it be said that this association was in its first organization 
composed of thirty-five men, of whom no one paid in to 
the general fund less than £,\o, while quite a number 



42 Life of Israel Putnam. [i739-5S- 

paid ;^i5, ;^20, and even ;^30, and ;^40, The whole sum 
subscribed by the thirty-five first members was ;^539. 
Their plan included a library, which was soon put in opera- 
tion, and furnished reading for these scattered families. 
After a time all the leading men of the town became mem- 
bers and proprietors, and this institution had a vast influ- 
ence in cultivating a taste for learning. As a remarkable 
illustration of this spirit and tendency we give the following 
sure and absolute fact, which cannot probably be matched 
by any town of like age and circumstances in all the years 
of New England history. There were at one time in Yale 
College, from this remote and lonely township yet in its 
comparative infancy, eleven young men. Ten of them 
graduated in one class, that of 1759, and one of them in 
that of 1760. Lest any should think there must be some 
mistake here, we give their names. The first was a minis- 
ter's son, bearing his father's peculiar name, Ebenezer 
Devotion. The rest were Rev. Enoch Huntington, Mr. 
John Chandler, Rev. Ebenezer Grosvenor, Rev. Ephraim 
Hide, Mr. Ebenezer Craft, Rev. Abishai Sabin, Rev. Joshua 
Paine, Rev. Joseph Dana, D. D., Rev. Ezra Weld and Rev. 
Joseph Sumner, D. D., — eight ministers and three of other 
professions, — and their names may all be seen on the Yale 
triennial catalogue for 1759 and 1760. 

If Israel Putnam's own early education had been neg- 
lected, he had at least now joined himself to a community 
where there was all needed stimulus, and where there were 
abundant advantages for the education of his children. 
And they, as we have already had testimony, were all care- 
fully educated. 

We cannot very well pass over the early years of Put- 
nam's residence in Pomfret without referring to the wolf 
story. It is an old and familiar tale, but in narrating the 
events of his life it would seem almost impossible to leave 



^T. 21-37] Removes to Pomfret, Ct. 43 

this transaction out. And as we are quite sure that we 
cannot tell the story in so good a way as it stands narrated 
in Miss Larned's recent " History of Windham County," * 
we shall allow her to relate its incidents. She tells it with 
such an explanation of the outward circumstances, and 
such a minute detail of the internal facts, that it will be in 
some sense a new story to our readers. She says : 

" At the time of the formation of the United Library Associa- 
tion, that famous historical personage known as 'Putnam's 
Wolf ' was making much disturbance. No mythical phantom 
like the she-wolf of Roman tradition, but a veritable flesh and 
blood denizen of Windham County — the story of her exploits, 
pursuits and capture, is known to the whole civilized world, and 
her den in Pomfret included among the notable places in Amer- 
ica. Part of her fame is doubtless due to the subsequent celeb- 
rity of her conqueror. Had Putnam remained obscure, his wolf 
might have been long ago forgotten, but she undoubtedly dis- 
played great prowess and tenacity, and has fairly won a place in 
historic annals. 

" Wolves had abounded in every Windham County town at 
their first settlement, but had gradually disappeared with advanc- 
ing civilization. Indians Tom and Jeremy had routed them in 
Plainfield and Killingly; Woodstock's last reported wolf was 
shot by Pembascus in 1732 ; Ashford's succumbed in 1735, leav- 
ing Pomfret's in sole possession of the field. A craggy, precip- 
itous hill range, bristling with jagged rocks and tangled forests, 
south of the Mashamoquet and between the Newichewanna and 
Blackwell's Brook, was her favorite place of residence, where she 
enjoyed the privilege of entire seclusion and easy access to the 
richest farms of Pomfret and Mortlake. The grave and rever- 
end seigniors who met with Mr. Williams to devise means for 
propagating Christian and useful knowledge, were but half a mile 
from the lurking place of this surviving representative of barbar- 
ism, and doubtless discussed the exploits of the wolf as well as 
the projected library. For "years this creature ranged and rav- 

* P. 360. 



44 Life of Israel Putnam. [i739-5S- 

aged the country. There was not a farm or door-yard safe from 
her incursions. Innumerable sheep, lambs, kids and fowls had 
fallen into her clutches. Little children were scared by her out 
of sleep and senses ; boys and girls feared to go to school or 
drive the cows home, and lonely women trembled for absent hus- 
bands and children. In summer she was wont to repair to wilder 
regions northward, returning in autumn with a young family to 
her favorite haunt in Pomfret. These cubs were soon shot by 
watchful hunters, but the more wary mother resisted every effort. 
She evaded traps, outwitted dogs, and made herself, in the words 
of her biographer, ' an intolerable nuisance.' 

" The great increase of stock following the sale and occupa- 
tion of Belcher's tract opened a new source of supply to this 
enterprising and keen-sighted animal. Israel Putnam's farm was 
only separated by a deep, narrow valley from her favorite hill- 
side^ This young farmer had devoted himself to the cultivation 
of his land with much skill and energy, and within two or three 
years had erected a house and out-buildings, broken up land for 
corn and grain, set out fruit trees and collected many valuable 
cattle and sheep. This fine flock soon caught the fancy of his 
appreciative neighbor, and one morning some ' seventy sheep and 
goats were reported killed, besides many lambs and kids torn 
and wounded.' Putnam was greatly exasperated by this loss and 
butchery. He was not one to submit tamely to such inflictions. 
From his boyhood he had been distinguished for courage and 
reckless daring. He was a bold rider, a practised and success- 
ful hunter. He had a bloodhound of superior strength and 
sagacity. His stock was very dear to him, and he at once 
resolved to rid Pomfret of this nuisance. For books at this time 
Putnam cared little. The United Library Association had no 
attraction for him, but he was very eager to enter into combi- 
nation with others for the destruction of this ' pernicious animal.' 
With five of his neighbors he agreed to hunt the wolf continuously 
by turns till they had caught and killed her. 

" How long they watched and waited is not known. The final 
hunt is believed to have occurred in the winter of 1742-3. A 
light snow-fall the night preceding enabled the watchful hunters 



Mt. 21-37.] Removes to Pomfret, Ct. 45 

to trace the wolf far westward over wood and valley, and thence 
back to her lair in Pomfret. 

" The report of their success in tracking the enemy had pre- 
ceded them, and men and boys with dogs and guns hurried out 
to meet the returning hunters, and join in the pursuit and cap- 
ture. The track led onward into the heart of that savage fast- 
ness, never before penetrated by white men. John Sharpe, a lad 
of seventeen, grandson of the first William Sharpe of Mashamo- 
quet, ran boy-like in advance of the others, following the trail 
up the icy crag as it wound on between overhanging rocks, 
gnarled stumps, and fallen tree trunks, to a small opening 
among the granite boulders on the hillside — the mouth appar- 
ently of a narrow cave or passage, tunnelling far down into the 
depths of the earth. A joyful shout from the lad announced 
the discovery of the wolf's hiding-place. The news soon spread 
throughout the neighborhood, bringing new actors and specta- 
tors. Great was the interest and excitement. The wolf was 
trapped, but how could she be taken ? The day was spent in 
fruitless efforts to force her from her position. Hounds were 
sent in, but came back cowed and wounded. Straw and brim- 
stone were burned in the cavern's mouth without effect. Secure 
in her rock-bound fortress, the enemy disdained to parley or sur- 
render. Night brought with it new fears and anxieties. The 
cave might have some outlet by which the wolf might steal away 
in the darkness. After all their efforts and anticipated triumph, 
it was possible that their foe might even now escape them. 

" It does not appear that Putnam had joined in the hunt, or 
seige, or that his absence was noted or regretted. The future 
world-renowned General was then a person of very little con- 
sequence. He was a young man and a stranger. He was not 
connected with any of Pomfret's old families. He lived in Mort- 
lake, with whose inhabitants Pomfret had as little concern as 
possible. He was not a member of the church. School Commit- 
tee, or Library Association. He was only a rough yonag farmer, 
making his own way in the world, with a good eye for stock 
and a very superior bloodhound, which in this moment of de- 
spondency was remembered, and summoned to the rescue. 



46 Life of Israel Putnam. [1739-55- 

"But the obscure young farmer of 1743 had every distin- 
guishing characteristic of the brave ' Old Put of '76.' A crisis 
brought him at once 'to the front.' Emergency and peril proved 
him a leader. With dog and gun he instantly obeyed the sum- 
mons. His coming changed the aspect of affairs. Doubt and 
fear vanished before his eagerness and impetuosity. Not a mo- 
ment was to be lost. The wolf must be routed at once, 
whatever the hazard. If she would not come to them, they must 
go to her. The passage must be stormed and its hidden citadel 
carried. If dog and negro 'declined the hazardous service,' Put- 
nam himself was ready for the onset. Remonstrance and rep- 
resentation of danger were unheeded. Divesting himself of 
coat and waistcoat, Avith a rope fastened around his body and a 
blazing torch in his hand, he slowly crawled down the black, icy, 
narrow passage, — 'a mansion of horror,' unvisited before but by 
'monsters of the desert,' — and at its farthest extremity descried 
the glaring eyeballs of his terrified adversary. Drawn back by 
those without, he descended a second time with torch and 
weapon, and with one dexterous shot brought down the wolf as 
she was preparing to take the offensive, ' and the people above, 
with no small exultation, dragged them both out together.' 
Pomfret's last wolf was destroyed, and her most famous hero was 
brought to her knowledge." 

We have already spoken of the anomalous condition of 
things in the Mortlake parish, growing out of that peculiar 
charter originally given to Captain John Blackwell. All the 
rights and peculiarities of that charter descended with the 
property to his son in 1707, and were again transferred 
with the land to Governor Belcher. Though Mr. Belcher 
broke the property up, and by so doing seemed to scatter the 
ancient conditions belonging to it, yet this old network, 
though broken, still lingered. People who planted them- 
selves on these lands thought they had some rights and 
privileges peculiar to themselves, though they did not 
very well know what they were; and the people round 



JEt. 21-37.] Removes to Pomfret, Ct. 47 

about thought the Mortlake folks were somehow a commu- 
nity by themselves. They tried, as we have stated, to get 
organized in 1747 into a town, but failed. But they had 
their parish and their church. The church was organized 
in 1734, five years before Putnam's arrival, and in 1735 
Rev. Ephraim Avery was settled in the ministry, and con- 
tinued till his death in 1754. Then Rev. Josiah Whitney, 
D. D., was settled for one of those very long ministries of 
which New England has a goodly number to show. His 
pastorate lasted from 1756 to 1824, a period of sixty-eight 
years, till his death. But ten years before his death he had 
a colleague. Rev. Luther Wilson, and through his agency 
Unitarianism was introduced into Brooklyn (it then was a 
town), and a small Unitarian parish sprung up, which is the 
only one that the State of Connecticut has ever been able 
steadily to maintain. 

But we go back to Mortlake at the middle of the last 
century. Having failed in their efforts to become a town, 
in 1752, by act of the Legislature of Connecticut, these peo- 
ple and their territory were taken out of their uncertain 
state and condition, and made distinctly a part of the town 
of Pomfret. But \kvQ parish oi Mortlake remained as be- 
fore, and went on its own way. From 1752, then on till 
1786, Putnam was a regular citizen of Pomfret. For the 
thirteen years before he had been only a quasi citizen. 

In building the first meeting-houses in the old towns and 
parishes of Connecticut (and the same was true in other 
parts of New England), the structures were often exceed- 
ingly rude ; sometimes unfurnished with seats of any kind, 
or if they had them, only of the roughest description. The 
process of building pews would generally be started by 
some enterprising young men, while the older and more 
conservative people looked on with not a little concern, and 
perhaps talked about the " fast generation" that was com- 



48 Life of Israel Putfiam. [i 739-5 5- 

ing upon the stage. In the old Mortlake. meeting-house 
things were in this general condition when, soon after the 
wolf adventure, Israel Putnam, John Hubbard and Daniel 
Tyler, on condition that they would reset the squares of 
glass that were broken out of the meeting-house windows, 
should have the privilege of building pews for their own 
private use in the hinder part of the house, provided that 
" they spile not above two seats on a side." But awhile 
after, the glass having got broken out again, and no ambi- 
tious young men appearing who were willing to buy the 
privilege of building themselves pews by resetting the glass, 
it was voted by this parish " to board up the meeting-house 
windows," i. e. those which were broken. But Mortlake 
Centre even in those years had a good school and a school- 
house rather stylish for those times, and after its distinct 
assignment to the town of Pomfret in 1752, it was voted by 
the town that schools be kept at five places for the general 
accommodation of all the inhabitants. 

In 1756, when the Rev. Josiah Whitney, a graduate of 
Yale College, was settled in the ministry in what was now 
Brooklyn Parish (the name Mortlake having been dropped 
with the action of the Legislature in 1752), the parish voted 
him £,120 for settlement and £,6^^ yearly salary. 

Meanwhile th'e young farmer was getting his lands more 
and more under cultivation, and by hard work was laying 
the foundations of an ample fortune for those days of 
ancient simplicity. Children were growing up around him. 
His oldest child, named for himself, was born in 1740. 
This is the Captain Israel Putnam whom we shall meet 
thirty-five years later around Bunker Hill. His next son 
was David, born in 1742, and named from that brother 
whom he had left in the old homestead at Salem Village. 
But this David died in early life, as did also another son of 
the same name born years afterwards. His third child was 



^T. 21-37.] Removes to Pomfret, Ct. 49 

Hannah, bearing her mother's name. Then come Ehza- 
beth, Mehitable, Molly, Eunice, till we reach Daniel, born 
in 1759, who as a boy of fifteen years followed his father 
to Cambridge in 1775, and was with him through all those 
stirring scenes. After Daniel was born the second David, 
of whom we have spoken as also dying in childhood, and 
his last child, born in 1764, was named after one of his 
compatriots in the French and Indian War, Peter Schuyler. 
It was through the skilful agency of this Peter Schuyler, a 
fellow-prisoner, that Putnam was delivered from captivity. 
He was taken prisoner by the French and Indians, and had 
been in imminent peril of his life. The services of Schuy- 
ler were gratefully remembered, and he attached his name 
to his youngest boy. But as the eye ranges down the list 
of those ten children, with their Scripture names given 
after the old New England custom of his fathers, the last 
one makes a sudden and unexpected contrast ; though even 
here Peter redeems it and keeps it within the Scripture 
enclosures. 

We have made frequent references to the United Libra- 
ry Association. It may gratify the reader to know that 
before Putnam ever went to the wars he became a member 
of this society. Rev. Daniel Hunt, formerly pastor of the 
church in Pomfret, in connection with its 150th anniver- 
sary, gives a little sketch of the history of the town and 
says : " To this Association General Israel Putnam was ad- 
mitted August 27th, 1753, and paid sixteen pounds 'old 
tenor.' " His children were now coming forward into life, 
and he meant they should have the opportunity of acquir- 
ing knowledge, and was all the more earnest because he 
knew and felt his own deficiencies. 



CHAPTER III. 

GOES TO THE FRENCH WAR. 

Bancroft's Idea of the French and Indian War. — Call for Men in 1755. — Put- 
nam raises a Company and becomes its Captain. — Names of his Children. 
— Rendezvous at Albany. — Fort Edward. — First Battle. — One of the 
Rangers. — British Pride and Pomp. — Taken Prisoner. — Constant Expos- 
ures. — Is chosen Major. — Invasion of Canada. — West Indies. — Close of 
French War. — Returns to Pomfret in 1764, a Colonel. 

BANCROFT in his " History of the United States" calls 
the French War the First Epoch of the American Rev- 
olution. It was a war for colonial independence against 
French aggression and interference. The American Col- 
onies bore the great burdens of that war, fighting gallantly 
under the British standards. In a variety of ways the defi- 
nition of Mr. Bancroft above given will hold good. Even 
if we leave the broader connections which he probably had 
in mind, and look at this French War simply as a grand 
field for the military training of men, — officers and soldiers, 
— nothing could have been more opportune in preparation 
for the scenes that were to be enacted a few years later. 
The young men of the country who displayed military 
genius in that war were all the while rising from the ranks 
of the common soldier to positions of military command. 
We had then no military school like our present West 
Point Academy for the training of officers, but this war of 
1755, lasting several years, brought forward a large number 
of men who, instructed in the school of experience, knew 
how to guide an army and set its ranks in battle array. 
The great commanders in the revolutionary war were most 
5° 



^T. 37-46.] Goes to the French War. 51 

of them officers of lower or higher grades in the French 
War. 

Troubles between the French and English for the pos- 
session of this continent were not new in 1755. The story 
reaches far back, but we cannot spend time to tell it. The 
English General Braddock had suffered a most disastrous 
defeat in this summer of 1755, and the remnant that re- 
mained of his boastful army was saved largely through the 
military genius of that young provincial officer, George 
Washington. 

The special point for which the New England forces 
were to rally was for the relief of Crown Point and the half 
wilderness regions about Lake George, where the French 
had gained a strong foothold. In the early part of 1 75 5 
the plan was adopted that the four New England Colonies 
should raise a force of three thousand two hundred men, in 
the following proportions : Massachusetts was to send twelve 
hundred; Connecticut one thousand; New Hampshire six 
hundred ; and Rhode Island four hundred. It was noticed 
that Massachusetts was drawn upon not so heavily in pro- 
portion to her population as the other colonies.* This 
produced a slight current of discontent at the first in Con- 
necticut. Massachusetts at that time included Maine, and 
her population was far larger than that of Connecticut. But 
Connecticut generously considered that Massachusetts was 
much more exposed on her wide north-eastern borders, and 
upon second thought, cordially raised the one thousand 
men, and added to the number five hundred more for such 
exigencies as might soon arise. 

* Bancroft, in his history, gives the population of the New England States 
in 1754 approximately as follows: Massachusetts, 207,000; Connecticut, 
133,000 ; New Hampshire, 50,000 ; Rhode Island, 35,000. It will be seen 
therefore, in this apportionment of men, Massachusetts furnished the least 
number in proportion to her population, and New Hampshire and Rhode 
Island the largest. 



52 Life of Israel Putnam. [1755-64. 

This call for a thousand men summoned Putnam from 
the quiet labors of the farm into scenes of war. From 
1739 to 1755 he had been most industriously occupied in 
bringing his large landed estate under vigorous culture, and 
he had wrought upon it a wonderful change. He had now 
become a substantial and honored citizen of the quiet town 
of Pomfret. He had grown rapidly in wealth, not by feed- 
ing at any public treasury, but by hard, skilful, intelligent 
industry upon the soil. Mr. Grosvenor says of him at 
this period of his life: "Pursuing every branch of his 
calling with all his native ardor and perseverance, his flocks 
and herds increased around him, and his fields yielded 
abundance, so that by the time of the opening of the 
French War in 1755 he had acquired a handsome property, 
and when he went out at the call of his country, he was 
enabled to leave his wife and children in a comfortable 
house and sufficiently provided for in case of his death." At 
that time six of his ten children were born, but two of them 
had died young, so that he left four at home with their 
mother, the oldest of whom was Israel, a stout youth of 
fifteen, and capable in some good measure of taking his 
father's place in the management of the flocks and herds, 
and in the cultivation of the lands. 

The first glimpse we get of Putnam on this broader field 
of action, is given us in Bancroft's " History of the United 
States." He is describing the little army as it moves from 
the southern end of Lake George to relieve Fort Edward 
on the Hudson. He says : "Among them was Israel Put- 
nam, then a private soldier." Now, it certainly serves to 
show that Putnam's after life must have made a deep 
impression upon the mind of the historian, that he should 
pause at this stage of his narrative, and from those thou- 
sand private soldiers single out this one alone and call him 
by his name. But we suspect that Mr. Bancroft has made 



^T. 37-46.] Goes to the French War. 53 

a mistake in speaking of him as a "private soldier." We 
have always understood that the first military service that 
Putnam ever performed was to raise a company of men in 
his own immediate neighborhood, of which he became cap- 
tain. Mr. Grosvenor, a descendant, ought certainly to know 
about this, and he says : " He was appointed to a captaincy 
by the Legislature of Connecticut, before he had seen a 
single day's military service." And General David Hum- 
phreys ought also to know, who says : " His reputation 
must have been favorably known to the government, since 
among the first troops that were levied by Connecticut in 
1755, he was appointed to the command of a company in 
Lyman's regiment of Provincials As he was ex- 
tremely popular he found no difficulty in enlisting his com- 
plement of recruits from the most hardy, enterprising and 
respectable young men of his neighborhood." 

To understand the first warlike movements in which Put- 
nam was engaged some few words of explanation are needed. 
Crown Point lies near the eastern boundary of New York, 
close upon the borders of Vermont, and about eighty miles 
north of Albany. It is on the southern waters of Lake 
Champlain, where the lake becomes narrow and is rap- 
idly fading to a point. Lake George is between Crown 
Point and Albany, a little west of a straight line drawn 
between these two extremes. General William Johnson of 
New York, afterwards Sir William, was the commander-in- 
chief of the American forces in this expedition, and Gen- 
eral Phinehas Lyman of Connecticut was the second in 
command, with the rank of Major General. The troops 
raised in New England joined those from other colonies, 
(especially New York) at Albany. That was the place of 
rendezvous during the summer of 1755. There was gath- 
ered here a force of 6,coo Americans, besides quite a large 
body of Mohawk Indians under the command of their chief 



54 Life of Israel Picinam. [1755-64- 

Hendrick. For though this is called the French and Indian 
War, the name itself implying that the Indians were chiefly 
on the French side, yet there were Indians also on the Eng- 
lish side, and this force which Hendrick led consisted of 
several hundred warriors. The country between Albany 
and Canada was a wild border land, which very naturally 
became a field of strife, as the two parties in the war were 
then situated. 

In leaving Albany to go northward the army could use 
Hudson River for transport for a considerable distance, and 
then it was necessary (in order to reach Lake George, which 
was their first main destination) to leave the river and make 
a path some ten or fifteen miles through the wilderness 
to the southern end of the lake. But for the security of 
their supplies it was needful to construct a fort at the junc- 
tion of this road with the river. The building of the fort, 
which was called Fort Edward, consumed some six weeks. 
A garrison under the command of Colonel Blan chard was 
left to man this fortification, and the main force under 
General Johnson moved on to the southern end of Lake 
George. 

It was this Fort Edward which Putnam, at a later period, 
with immense hazards and by almost superhuman exertions, 
saved from being utterly destroyed by fire. 

Before General Johnson had time to fortify himself in 
his new position at Lake George, news arrived that Baron 
Dieskau, the newly arrived French commander, was moving 
to attack Fort Edward ; and Colonel Ephraim Williams 
from Massachusetts, with a thousand white soldiers and 
some two hundred Indians, was sent back for the relief of 
this fortress. But by a curious turn of affairs Baron Dies- 
kau, having heard that Fort Edward was furnished with 
mounted cannon and might prove a dangerous place to 
attack, changed his plan and was moving to attack the main 



uK 













,1 ^f 

t i|5 



:.^-r-v'^'^p 









,^ 



\\ - 



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:^N 






^p£:r \)4 ■^- \>4^ J 



b^ 



I'UTNAM SAVING rOKT tiJWAKU. 



yET. 37-46-] Goes to the French War. 55 

body at Lake George. The two armies met in the forests, 
and before the Americans were aware of their danger, they 
were trapped in an ambush and a most deadly fire opened 
upon them, by which Colonel Williams, the Indian Sachem 
Hendrick, and many other subordinate officers, and a large 
number of the men, were almost immediately killed and 
wounded. It was in connection with this party that Ban- 
croft names Israel Putnam. They were thrown into utter 
confusion and fell back, without keeping military order, to 
the main body at the lake. They came in as flying fugi- 
tives, each one escaping for his life. But the firing, only 
three or four miles distant, had been heard by General 
Johnson and his force, and it was noticed also that the 
guns were each moment drawing nearer and nearer. 
Putting themselves in battle array as well as they could, 
and receiving back to themselves their flying comrades, 
order was at length brought out of confusion, and the army 
of Baron Dieskau, composed of French, Canadians and Indi- 
ans, met with a terrible repulse. Baron Dieskau was him- 
self wounded and taken prisoner, and about seven hundred 
of his men were left dead upon the field. Thus a most 
mortifying and bloody repulse was turned into a decisive 
victory, which caused great rejoicings throughout the col- 
onies. This was Israel Putnam's first baptism of fire and 
blood. 

Colonel Williams, who commanded this relieving party, 
was an officer greatly trusted and beloved, and his name is 
destined to live in the quiet walks of learning through com- 
ing generations. Before setting out upon this campaign, 
while he was yet at Albany, knowing the uncertainties of 
the expedition upon which he was entering, he made a will, 
by which he bequeathed his property (which was consider- 
able) for the founding of a free school in what was then a 
comparatively wild region. He had been in command of 



56 Life of Israel Putnam. [1755-64- 

Fort Massachusetts, which was in the region now covered 
by the town of Adams in Berkshire county. His school 
was to be in the town next west of that locality, then almost 
wild country, on condition that the place should be named 
Williamstown. For several years the funds were allowed 
to accumulate. But in 1785 trustees were appointed, 
and in 1791 the school was started, and in 1793 it was in- 
corporated as Williams College. 

Besides the one thousand men and the five hundred 
reserves which Connecticut had already raised, before this 
summer of 1755 was over she had also equipped and sent for- 
ward two regiments more, each numbering seven hundred 
and fifty men. But it became evident before advancing far- 
ther into that almost pathless wilderness, that several forts 
and strongholds should be built to keep a sure and safe con- 
nection with the more settled portions of the country. The 
autumn of 1755 was spent in this way, and when the winter 
set in, enough of the forces were kept to man these newly- 
built fortresses, and the rest allowed to return home to 
await the operations of another year. 

Though France and England had been more or less at 
war on this continent for a long course of years, yet the 
real declaration of war in what is commonly called the 
French and Indian War was not made until 1756. In May 
of that year England openly declared war against France. 
To give dignity and force to her plans, she also sent over 
several English regiments, with General Abercrombie to be 
chief commander on the field, and the Earl of Loudoun to 
be Governor of Virginia and a sort of viceroy over all the 
colonies. 

And now for a time, the Americans had to endure that 
peculiar English pride which showed itself in Braddock the 
summer before, who disdained the idea that a young Amer- 
ican upstart in the person of George Washington could 



^T. 37-46.] Goes to the French War. 57 

teach a British General how to fight. In hke manner 
Abercrombie and Loudoun, despising all suggestions from 
men born on this soil, proposed to astonish the provincials 
at their methods of conducting a campaign. The conse- 
quence was that the summer of 1756 was used up in long 
and tedious delays. Abercrombie had the idea of removing 
the native officers from the regiments raised on these shores 
and substituting Englishmen, so that the Americans would 
be only of the rank and file. But he found that the men 
of New England, and especially those from Connecticut, 
who by their charter had never been ruled by foreign gov- 
ernors, would not submit to this measure. The season was 
mainly used up in pompous nothings. Mr. Hollister in his 
" History of Connecticut " says : " It was a sore affliction 
that brought Abercrombie to Albany to delay the provincial 
troops, who, had they been led on by Winslow, would prob- 
ably have taken Crown Point without British aid." The 
season ended with the defeat of the English and American 
forces by Montcalm, which sent over the colonies a wave 
of weariness and discouragement, in strong contrast v/ith 
that tide of rejoicing which followed the close of the cam- 
paign in 1755. 

There are multitudes of people yet living v/ho, in their 
early life, used to hear the stories of this French War from 
aged men who had been actors in it. It was a war of most 
peculiar hardships and rough adventures. Carried on in 
such wild and inaccessible regions, provisions often grew 
short, and many a man spent days and weeks almost upon 
the verge of starvation. Moreover, the operations that 
went on in the winter months were attended with such 
sharp exposures to the cold, that none but men of iron con- 
stitution could endure them. 

But let us get such glimpses as we can of Putnam in 



58 Life of Israel Pittnam, [1755-64- 

these scenes of 1755 and '6. When the army disbanded in 
the autumn of 1755 (except such as were required to man 
the northern fortresses which had been erected during the 
summer), Putnam did not go home, but remained on the 
field of action. He became one of that famous band of 
Rangers, who employed their time most industriously in 
picking up valuable information as to what was going on 
in the French army, and at the same time annoying and 
troubling the enemy in every way possible. General 
Humphreys says on this point: "Soon after his arrival in 
camp he became intimately acquainted with the famous 
partisan Captain, afterwards Major, Rogers, with whom he 
was frequently associated in traversing the wilderness, re- 
connoitering the enemy's lines, gaining intelligence, and 
taking straggling prisoners, as well as in beating up the 
quarters and surprising the advanced pickets of their army. 
.... The first time Rogers and Putnam were detached with 
a party of these light troops, it was the fortune of the latter 
to preserve with his own hand the life of the former, and to 
cement their friendship with the blood of one of their 
enemies." 

Mr. Hollister, in a note on page 58, volume H. of his 
history, has furnished the record of a vote passed in the 
Connecticut Assembly in May, 1756. The Assembly 
granted "to Captain Israel Putnam the number of iifty 
Spanish milled dollars, and thirty such dollars to Captain 
Noah Grant, as a gratuity for their extraordinary services 
and good conduct in ranging and scouting, the winter past, 
for the annoyance of the enemy near Crown Point." Mr. 
Bancroft in his history thus describes Putnam: "There 
was the generous, open-hearted Israel Putnam — a Con- 
necticut Major — of a gentle disposition, brave, incapable 
of disguise, fond of glorying, sincere and artless." Upon 



^T. 37-46] Goes to the French War. 59 

this sentence Mr. Grosvenor in his memorial address, thus 
remarks : 

" This is mostly a high eulogium, and it may seem ungrateful 
to find fault with it. But we must be allowed to repel with some 
warmth the charge of glorying, /. e. boasting of his exploits. We 
claim that whatever else might be lacking in Putnam's character 
he was every inch a soldier, and a boastful spirit is a very unsol- 
dierly trait. We challenge Bancroft to produce from any living 
acquaintance of Putnam, or from any dead record that is worthy 
of credit, any the slightest proof that Putnam was ever a braggart. 
Here where he lived is the place to come and inquire the truth 
on this point. Here it can be learned that even in his old age, 
a time when most soldiers love to 'shoulder the crutch and show' 
how fields were won,' he instead of being boastful was a remark- 
ably modest man Judge Paine of the United States Dis- 
trict Court of Vermont, who was Putnam's neighbor for thirty 
years, says, ' he was a modest, unassuming man, and had noth- 
ing of the braggadocio about him Universally considered 

by all his neighbors a man of the strictest truth and veracity.' " 

We cannot go over minutely the events of this French 
War. It would occupy space that we need for more impor- 
tant purposes. If any one wishes to know in detail the 
military history of Putnam through those years, he may 
find the story fully written out in General Humphreys' 
" Life of General Putnam," of which the first edition was 
published in about 1790. The French War was compara- 
tively near to him in time, but distant from us. He had 
lived in General Putnam's society, and it was but natural 
that he should dwell upon the bold deeds and hairbreadth 
escapes of his hero. In that war Putnam passed through 
many an adventure, where he exhibited the same un- 
daunted courage shown in his encounter with the wolf. He 
was often brought into the closest quarters where escape 
seemed impossible, but by his quick perceptions and amaz- 



6o Life of Israel Putnam. [175S-64. 

ing energy, — by keeping himself master of all his powers 
and faculties in the most critical moments, it was his habit, 
if we may so speak, to wrest his victory from what in 
others would have been sure defeat. As an example of 
what we mean (and there are many similar adventures) we 
will give one illustration in General Humphreys' own 
words. He says : 

" As one day Major Putnam chanced to be with a bateau and 
five men, on the eastern shore of the Hudson near the rapids, 
contiguous to which Fort Miller stood, his men on the opposite 
bank had given him to understand that a large body of savages 
were in his rear and would be upon him in a moment. To stay 
and be sacrificed, to attempt crossing and be shot, or to go down 
the falls with an almost absolute certainty of being drowned ; 
were the sole alternatives that presented themselves to his choice. 
So instantaneously was the latter adopted that one man who had 
rambled a little from the party was of necessity left, and fell a 
miserable victim of savage barbarity. The Indians arrived on 
the shore soon enough to fire many balls on the bateau before it 
could be got under way. No sooner had our bateau-men 
escaped by favor of the rapidity of the current beyond the reach 
of musket shot, than death seemed only to have been avoided in 
one form to be encountered in another not less terrible. Prom- 
inent rocks, latent shelves, absorbing eddies, and abrupt descents 
for a quarter of a mile, afforded scarcely the smallest chance of 
escaping without a miracle. Putnam, trusting himself to a good 
Providence whose kindness he had often experienced, rather than 
to men whose tenderest mercies are cruelty, was now seen to 
place himself sedately at the helm, and afford an astonishing 
spectacle of serenity. His companions, with a mixture of terror, 
admiration and wonder, saw him incessantly changing the course 
to avoid the jaws of ruin that seemed extended to swallow the 
whirling boat. Twice it turned fairly round to avoid the rifts of 
rocks. Amidst these eddies in which there was the greatest dan- 
ger of its foundering, at one moment the sides were exposed to 
the fury of the waves, then the stern, and next the bow glanced 



^T. 37-46.] Goes to the French War. 61 

obliquely onward with inconceivable velocity. With not less 
amazement the savages beheld him, sometimes mounting the bil- 
lows, then plunging abruptly down, at other times skilfully veer- 
ing from the rocks, and shooting through the only narrow pas- 
sage ; until at last they viewed the boat safely gliding on the 
smooth surface of the stream below. At this sight, it is asserted 
that these rude sons of nature were affected with the same kind of 
superstitious veneration which the Europeans in the dark ages 
entertained for some of their most valorous champions. They 
deemed the man invulnerable whom their balls, on his pushing 
from shore, could not touch, and whom they had seen steering in 
safety down the rapids that had never before been passed. They 
conceived it would be an affront to the Great Spirit to attempt to 
kill this favored mortal with powder and ball, if they should ever 
see and know him again." 

No wonder these Indians thought that Putnam bore a 
charmed life, for it was no more than many white men 
thought. How he could always come out alive and gen- 
erally unharmed from his many dangerous encounters, was 
a mystery. It is among the strange allotments of this life 
(some would say chances) that certain men can never seem 
to come even remotely into the region of danger, without 
a disastrous and often fatal issue ; while other men all their 
lives long pass unscathed through the most perilous situ- 
ations. From the day that Putnam entered the den at 
Pomfret till he rode down the steep declivity of stone steps 
at Greenwich, Connecticut (being then sixty years old, and 
weighing two hundred pounds), history hardly affords a 
parallel, in case of any one man, to the many places of im- 
minent peril which he occupied. He did not indeed escape 
without wounds and scars, but he bore off his life, and died 
in old age in his own home. 

General Humphreys says : " The active services of Cap- 
tain Putnam on every occasion attracted the admiration of 
the public, and induced the Legislature of Connecticut to 



62 Life of Israel Putnam. [1755-64- 

promote him to a majority in i757 j" which is the simple, 
old-fashioned way of telling us that he rose from the rank 
of Captain to that of Major in 1757. 

The war dragged its weary length along. It is some- 
times sportively said of certain physicians that they act 
and speak as if their patients ought to be willing to die if 
they can only die scientifically. And those great British 
Generals that came over in the early part of the French 
War, carried themselves with such lofty and pompous airs, 
that it seemed a matter of small consequence whether they 
led their armies to victory or defeat, provided they only 
exhibited before the untutored provincials the rules of sci- 
entific warfare. Too proud and haughty to receive sugges- 
tions from practical men who knew far better than they 
what needed to be done, they squandered the time through 
1756 and '57 in the idleness of the camp, or if they made 
a military movement, it was almost sure to end disastrously. 
Mr. Hollister, speaking of the operations of 1756, says: 
"While this fine army was thus passing the summer in 
shameful inactivity, settling points of etiquette and wait- 
ing for leave from its officers to do what at an earlier day 
Major Treat, or at a later day Putnam, would have done in 
six weeks with six thousand effective men, the enemy was 
gaining every advantage by the delay." 

After two years of this style of management under Lou- 
doun and Abercrombie, but especially the former, as he was 
chief in authority, the colonies became disgusted and dis- 
couraged. And when in 1758 Loudoun called together the 
Colonial Governors to ask for more troops, and to block out 
the course of future action, he found them cold and formal, 
and in no hurry to comply with his requests. But fortu- 
nately just then William Pitt, the Earl of Chatham, had 
come again to the front in English politics, and Loudoun 
was recalled. A strong hand had now taken hold of the 



iET. 37-46-] Goes to the French War. 63 

helm of state, and there was to be a very different system 
of operation. 

In 1758, Putnam was taken prisoner by the Indians, 
those savage allies of the French, and in this captivity he 
suffered more horrible outrages, and was in more often and 
imminent danger of losing his life than ever before or af- 
terwards. All these painful and cruel details need not be 
repeated, but he bore to his grave the huge scars from 
wounds then inflicted. But at last he was passed along to 
the French authorities, and was held as a prisoner of war, 
awaiting exchange. We have before made reference to this 
matter in connection with the name given by Putnam to his 
youngest son, born in 1764. The story is pleasantly told 
by General Humphreys, and as it is brief we quote it. 

"The capture of Frontenac by General Bradstreet afforded 
occasion for an exchange of prisoners. Colonel Schuyler was 
comprehended in the cartel. A generous spirit can never be sat- 
isfied with imposing tasks for its generosity to accomplish. 
Apprehensive if it should be known that Putnam was a distin- 
guished partisan his liberation might be retarded, and knowing 
there were officers who from the length of their captivity had a 
claim to priority of exchange, he had by his happy address 
induced the Governor to offer that whatever officer he might 
think proper to nominate should be included in the present car- 
tel. With great politeness of manner but seeming indifference 
as to object, he expressed his warmest acknowledgements to the 
Governor and said, ' There is an old man here who is a provin- 
cial Major and wishes to be at home with his wife and children ; 
he can do no good here or any where else ; I believe your Excel- 
lency had better keep some of the young men who have no wife 
or children to care for, and let the old fellow go home with me.' 
This justifiable finesse had the desired effect." 

We do not exactly vouch for the morality of this transac- 
tion, but it is an old adage that " all is fair in war." At any 



64 Life of Israel Putnam. [i755-64. 

rate one can easily see that Putnam, with his noble and mag- 
nanimous nature, would never be likely to forget a friend 
who had thus given him his liberty. 

The year 1758 closed with failure again in the operations 
around Ticonderoga and Crown Point, but with some grand 
triumphs elsewhere which tended to encourage the army 
and the people ; but the year 1759 was to be memorable for 
its successes, as it included among other victories the cap- 
ture of Quebec by General Wolfe. This is one of those 
battles that appeals strongly to the imaginations of men. 
The preceding circumstances, as well as the issue of the 
battle, give it a most romantic place in human annals. Not 
even the flippant story, as told by the Irish driver who in 
these modern days carries you out to the Plains of Abra- 
ham, and who has learned his lesson by rote, can wholly 
destroy in your mind the romantic impressions of that 
battle. 

The success of Wolfe at Quebec opened the way in the 
following year for the general conquest of Canada. Put- 
nam, by this time had risen to the rank of Lieutenant-Col- 
onel, and was rapidly acquiring skill and experience as a 
leader of men. He was an important officer under General 
Amherst in the completion of this Canadian campaign. 

When these northern conquests were over, the scene 
shifted to the French possessions in the West India Islands. 
Fleets came out of England to co-operate with the land 
forces, which were transferred to those heated regions, and 
Putnam was put in command of General Lyman's regiment, 
numbering one thousand men. Here success followed suc- 
cess in a very rapid manner, though this southern climate 
was terribly destructive to men who had just been living 
amid the cold of these northern regions. The war finally, 
in its last act, passed from the French to the Spanish pos 
sessions, and Havana the capital of Cuba was taken. Then 



^T. 37-46.] Goes to the French War. 65 

followed in 1763 the treaty of peace between Great Brit- 
ain and France, and in 1764, after a brief expedition to our 
western borders, Putnam returned to his home with the 
title of Colonel. 

We are aware that this is only the briefest outline sketch 
of the French and Indian War, and that is all that has 
been attempted. It serves to keep the succession of times 
and seasons, and to show the heroic proportions of this 
farmer from Connecticut. Putnam had acquired a very rare 
and unique reputation for the services he had thus ren- 
dered. His name and his deeds were everywhere upon the 
tongues of the people. Especially was he known for his 
new and original way of overcoming all obstacles and get- 
ting out of all difficulties. In the appendix may be found 
a larger reference to this trait of his genius, in which he 
was well-nigh unsurpassed. In any sharp, sudden and un- 
expected crisis his decisions were made with the quickness 
of instinct, but hours of the most sober reflection could 
hardly have improved them. He had gained too a character 
for courage and military ability which was not then trifled 
with. Men turned toward him as a tower of strength in 
any future complications that might arise. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ELEVEN YEARS OF HOME LIFE. 

Death of his Wife. — Selectman and Moderator of Town-meeting. — Joins the 
Church. — Watching the Movements of the British Government. — The 
Stamp Act. — The Sugar Act. — The Boston Port Bill. — Early Remon- 
strances from Connecticut. — Growing Excitements. — False Alarm in 
September, 1774. — Colonel Deming's Oration. — News from Lexington. — 
Ride to Cambridge and Concord. 

THE long war was at last over, and the American Col- 
onies were free from French insult and interference. 
Putnam went out to this war in 1755, a plain, uneducated 
farmer. He came back in 1764, with large military knowl- 
edge gained in the rough school of practical experience. 
But like the officers and soldiers in our late war of the 
Rebellion, when his warlike service was ended he went 
back to the quiet pursuits of the farm just as naturally as 
he left them in 1755. 

In the year 1765 two events occurred which deserve spe- 
cial notice. In that year, the wife of his youth and the 
mother of his ten children died, leaving her youngest son 
an infant of a year old. It added a pang to this affliction 
that now, after his long absence and painful separation from 
his family, this bereavement should fall just as he had come 
back to enjoy the rest and comfort of his substantial home. 
This was the Hannah Pope of Salem Village, with whom 
his destinies had been united for more than a quarter 
of a century. 

In this year 1765 Putnam made a public profession of his 
Christian faith, and united with the church in Brooklyn, then 
66 



^T. 46-57.] Eleven Years of Home Life. 6y 

under the pastoral care of Dr. Josiah Whitney, whose long min- 
istry has already been noticed. But in all the years before 
this, Putnam had walked strictly in the ways of his fathers. 
He came of a race, that in its several generations, from the 
beginning until now, had been a strongly religious race, as 
we have seen. In his life in Danvers and in Pomfret he 
was a regular attendant upon the worship of the sanctuary, 
and a firm supporter of religious institutions. There are 
no braver men on earth than those who humble themselves 
before God. History is full of its examples, showing us 
that the best soldiers are often the truest Christians. Many 
a godless scoffer has found to his cost that there are no 
more fearful men to encounter in the day of battle than 
those who have the fear of the Lord before their eyes. In 
the early days of our late Rebellion great stories were told 
as to the wonderful things those zouaves from the low pur- 
lieus of New York city were to do when they came in face 
of the enemy. But it was found when the trial was made, 
that they were as poor soldiers as they were citizens, and 
that no trust could be reposed in such men in the day of 
battle. In every long and trying war which this country 
has passed through, the burden has rested back at last upon 
solid character. And especially has it rested upon the 
Christian people — the ministers and churches of the coun- 
try, without whose aid and support no one of our great 
wars seemingly could have been carried through.* 

* The general spirit and position of the New England ministers in the war 
of the Revolution are pertinently illustrated by the following extract from a 
letter published in the "Independent Chronicle," May 29, 1777. The letter 
had been waylaid and so came to light. John Cochran, the writer, was a tory, 
then on Long Island. His wife, to' whom the letter is addressed, is in New 
Hampshire, and he wants her to go from where she is to a place of more pri- 
vacy and security. He says : 

" I shall either hope to find you at the Isle Shoals or up at Londonderry. 
If you intend to tarry where you are, I pray for God's sake, that there be no 
CLERGYMAN in the house ; if there is, your life is not worth a farthing." 



68 Life of Israel Putnam. [1764-75. 

It has sometimes been doubted whether Putnam ever 
was a member of the church. There need be no doubt 
whatever upon that point. The date of his admission to 
the church in Brooklyn is given us by Mr. Grosvenor, and 
is abundantly shown by many witnesses. He made this 
public profession May 19th, 1765, so that he was a com- 
municant full twenty-five years. 

The West India campaign, of which we spoke in the 
former chapter, was terribly destructive to life and health 
in those who took part in it, and the British government 
gave a tract of land to the men of Connecticut who sur- 
vived those fearful exposures. This land was situated on 
the Mississippi River, near Natchez. In the winter of 
1772-73 General Lyman, Colonel Putnam and others char- 
tered a vessel, and made a voyage to examine this land tract 
with a view to the establishment of a colony upon it. They 
extended their voyage beyond the mere necessities of the 
case and visited the island of Jamaica, and also entered the 
harbor of Pensacola. Mr. Grosvenor tells us that in con- 
nection with this voyage Putnam kept a diary which is still 
in existence, and which is probably the longest piece of 
writing that he ever executed. This diary is valuable 
for the settling of a point about which there is some dis- 
pute. We call attention to this subject distinctly, because 
the matter will come up again in another form. Major 
Small, an English officer, was stationed at Pensacola as a 
subordinate of General Huldeman. Under date of March 
8, 1773, Putnam records in his diary: "I went from the 
General's to see Major Small, who was not well. Stayed 
there all night." Again on the 13th of March he says: 
"Supped with Major Small; lodged at night." These 
items are of importance as showing that Putnam not only 
knew Major Small, but apparently knew him intimately, or 
he would not have been likely twice at least in this short 
visit to have spent the night with him. 



^T. 46-57.] Eleven Years of Home Life. 69 

It is not needful that we should attempt to expand to any- 
great length the circumstances of his life, during the ten 
years and more that intervened between the close of the 
French War and the opening of the revolutionary drama. 
Our interest centres mainly about one feature of this life, 
viz., his intense indignation at that system of oppression 
which the mother country was trying to establish over these 
colonies. They had suffered and toiled and been impov- 
erished by the burdens and hardships of the French War, 
which had just closed, and it seemed now that after all their 
faithful services, England was determined to extract from 
them the money wherewith to pay the expenses of this 
protracted conflict, Mr. Hollister says of the state of 
things at this period : 

" An old national debt, by gradual accretions, had grown at 
last to the appalling sum of seven hundred millions of dollars. 
Even at the beginning of the last French War, the alarm of the 
government had been excited, and the Board of Trade had pro- 
posed a plan of taxing the American Colonies. But in the whirl 
of those exciting campaigns that followed each other like a suc- 
cession of autumn gales upon an exposed ocean shore, the scheme 
had been allowed to slumber for about eight years. No sooner 
had the peace of 1763 given the nation an opportunity to look 
at its internal condition, than the British ministry again turned 
its eye toward the American Colonies as the proper field for 
financial experiment." * 

England passed the Stamp Act in 1665. The excite- 
ment caused by this event, especially in the New England 
Colonies, was intense. As Massachusetts was the older 
and the larger colony, and had the chief seaport in New 
England, her course of action in those years has been more 
distinctly and largely written out, and many people sup- 
pose that it was mainly her influence that aroused the other 
* Vol. I. p. 120. 



70 Life of Israel Putnam. [1764-75- 

New England Colonies, and that she did the chief work in 
organizing opposition. But Connecticut did not borrow 
her indignation from Massachusetts. From the earliest 
dawn of this oppressive policy Connecticut was taking 
action by herself. Her peculiar charter made her the more 
keenly alive to the dangers that threatened. Hitherto she 
had known far less of English rule and English interfer- 
ence than the other colonies. Her charter exempted her. 
She had chosen her own Governors, and lived in peace and 
prosperity under them. When the haughty Andros, the 
minion of James H., undertook to be Governor of all New 
England, 1686-89, and came to Hartford to demand 
that charter which especially stood in his way, he went 
back a wiser man than he came, but without the document. 
Israel Putnam, though born in Massachusetts, had now 
been a citizen of Connecticut for more than a quarter of a 
century, and had thoroughly identified himself with her in- 
terests. As we are writing his life, it becomes more nat- 
ural that we should look at this opening strife preceding 
the revolutionary struggle from the Connecticut standpoint. 
Not that we would in any degree neglect or disparage the 
course of Massachusetts. Her record is clear and vigor- 
ous. Her example was noble and inspiriting. She has on 
her historic rolls for those years the names of men whose 
words and deeds will never be forgotten. But Connecticut 
was not the less bold, active, determined. What was called 
the Sugar Act was made a law in 1764, and the Stamp 
Act was under discussion. In that very year the Con- 
necticut Assembly, when it came together in May, and be- 
fore any other colony had taken public action, began to 
move in this matter. They appointed three men who, in 
conference with Governor Fitch, should prepare a paper of 
remonstrance against the policy of the British government. 
The paper was finished and forwarded. One of these three 



Mt. 46-57.] Eleven Years of Home Life. yi 

men, Mr. Jared Ingersoll, soon after went to England, and 
though he did his duty faithfully in the way of remonstrance, 
yet when it was a foregone conclusion that the Stamp Act 
would pass, he unwisely (though it was done by the advice 
of the wise Doctor Franklin) allowed himself to be ap- 
pointed Commissioner for Connecticut to sell this stamped 
paper. 

When Mr. Ingersoll came back to this country with this 
commission in his pocket, the wrath of the people was 
kindled to a white heat. His residence was at New Haven, 
but not being able to stand the indignation of his towns- 
men, he set out for Hartford to consult the Connecticut 
Assembly and bring himself under the protection of Gov- 
ernor Fitch. His journey was nearly ended. He had 
reached the vicinity of Wethersfield, when he first met five 
men on horseback, who offered him no violence, but rode on 
in his company. Soon he met thirty more, who joined 
the procession and passed on with him towards Wethers- 
field. Then after a little he found himself received into 
the midst of a cavalcade of five hundred, who attended him 
into Wethersfield. The leader of this cohort was a man 
by the name of Durkee. Once in the street of Wethers- 
field they commanded him to resign his office of Stamp- 
master. He desired to parley, and wished to consult the 
Assembly and Governor Fitch, but they were not to be put 
off. He must resign then and there. It became more and 
more apparent to him each moment that these men meant 
all they said, and that he should never escape with his 
life from this company except by resigning the hated 
office. And he resigned. They had a form of resignation 
all ready for him, by which they made him say that he did 
this of his " own free will and accord." 

Putnam was now a prominent member of the Connect! 
cut Sons of Liberty. The stamped paper for Connecti- 



']2 Life of Israel Putnam. [1764-75, 

cut had been brought as far as New York, and it was 
uncertain what would happen. It was the Governor's place 
to appoint a Stamp-master in the room of Mr. Ingersoll, 
who had resigned of "his own free will and accord." Put- 
nam called on the Governor as a deputy from the Sons of 
Liberty, on this Stamp Act business. The Governor said 
to him, " What shall I do if the stamped paper should be 
sent to me by the King's authority.-'" "Lock it up," said 
Putnam, " until we [the Sons of Liberty] shall visit you 
again." " And what will you do with it then } " Putnam's 
reply was, " We shall expect you to give us the key of the 
room where it is deposited ; and if you think fit, in order to 
screen yourself from blame, you may forewarn us upon 
our peril not to enter the room." " And," asked the Gov- 
ernor, " what will you do afterwards ? " " Send it safely 
back again." "But," said he, "if I should refuse admis- 
sion } " " Your house will be leveled with the dust in five 
minutes." It must be borne in mind that Governor Fitch, 
in this colloquy, had no more love for stamped paper than 
Putnam himself. He was not a foreign appointee, but was 
elected Governor dy the people and for the people. And 
it should be said also for Mr. Ingersoll, that he was an ear- 
nest friend of liberty, and fought against the Stamp Act at 
home and in England. And when he could not prevail to 
stop it, he did prevail to have the time of its enforcement 
put off, and this delay really caused the death of the bill. 
The stamped paper reached New York, but never got into 
Connecticut. The English ministry, finding what a furious 
storm they were raising, repealed the act in March, 1766, 
but superseded it by the Boston Port Bill, which was cun- 
ningly contrived to make a fair show, but upon close exam- 
ination had the same essential elements of oppression in it 
that the Stamp Act had, though acting in quite a different 
way. This was especially fitted to rouse the indignation of 



Mr. 46-57.] Eleven Years of Home Life. 73 

Boston, and it did thoroughly arouse it. The people took 
the matter in hand and on the loth of June, 1768, the 
pent-up wrath broke out into open violence. Then came 
the tax on tea, and other arbitrary measures. 

So passed these weary years of turmoil and excitement. 
The industry of the country was kept almost at a stand- 
still by the wide preoccupation of the public mind, and by 
the immense uncertainties which overhung the future. 
England still held fast to her purpose, in one form or an- 
other, to tax America and raise her home revenues by 
sharp exactions upon her provinces. Men began to see 
that these matters would never end without the interven- 
tion of the sword. And yet this must be a struggle with 
many most painful features ; officers and soldiers who had 
fought side by side through the French War, who had con- 
tracted close friendships, must now meet face to face upon 
the battle-field as mortal foes. 

General Humphreys, in his " Life," etc., has given a kind 
of summary of Putnam's course of action during this period. 
It being settled in the minds of men that war must come, 
he says : 

" All eyes were now turned to find the men who, possessed of 
militaiy experience, would dare in the approaching hour of sever- 
est trial to lead their undisciplined fellow-citizens to battle. For 
none were so stupid as not to comprehend that want of success 
would involve the leaders in the punishment of rebellion. Put- 
nam was among the first and most conspicuous who stepped 

forth As he happened to be often at Boston, he held 

many conversations on these subjects with General Gage, the 
British commander-in-chief, Lord Percy, Colonel Sheriff, Colonel 
Small [here he saw Colonel Small again] and many officers with 
whom he had formerly served, who were now at the headquar- 
ters. Being often questioned, in case the dispute should pro- 
ceed to hostilities, what part he should really take, he always 
answered, with his country, and that, let whatever might happen, 



74 Life of Israel Putnam. [i764-75. 

he was prepared to abide the consequences. Being interrogated 
whether he^ who had been a witness to the prowess and victories 
of the British fleets and armies, did not think them equal to the 
conquest of a coimtry which was not the owner of a single ship, 
regiment, or magazine, he rejoined that he could only say jus- 
tice would be on our side and the event with providence ; but 
that he had calculated if it required six years for the combined 
forces of England and her colonies to conquer such a feeble 
country as Canada, it would at least take a very long time for 
England alone to overcome her own widely extended colonies, 
which were much stronger than Canada : that when men fought 
for everything dear, in what they believed to be the most sacred 
of all causes, and in their own native land, they would have great 
advantages over their enemies who were not in the same situa- 
tion ; and that having taken into view all circumstances, for his 
own part he fully believed that America would not be so easily 
conquered by England as those gentlemen seemed to expect. 
.... This was the tenor, our hero hath often told me, of those 
amicable interviews ; and thus, as it commonly happens in dis- 
putes about future events which depend upon opinion, they parted 
without conviction, no rnore to meet in a friendly manner until 
after the appeal should have been made to heaven, and the issue 
confirmed by the sword." * 

There is a man among us (vi^e are happy in the belief 
that he was not born on our American soil) who has, within 
a comparatively few years, outraged history by repeated 
insinuations that Putnam was playing the part of a traitor 
in the opening scenes of the Revolution, especially in June, 
1775. If a man ever lived, against whom these " fiery darts 
of the wicked" might be shot harmlessly, that man was 
General Putnam. With a character as transparent and 
open as the day, if the men of his own time did not know 
what he was about and what was the great current of his 
thought and feeling, then by all means let us have a for- 

* Humphreys' " Life of Putnam," pp. 87-89. 



Mt. 46-57.] Eleven Years of Home Life. 75 

eigner come a hundred years afterward and tell us. The 
man who makes these insinuations is one of large histori- 
cal learning, and has greatly helped other men (even on 
this particular subject) by his immense accumulation of pri- 
mary facts and documents. But if ever a theory defied the 
common sense of mankind, his theory does. 

In violent contrast to this mean and skeptical philoso- 
phy, we propose to introduce a passage from the oration of 
Colonel Henry C. Deming * of Hartford (now deceased), 
delivered in 1859, on the occasion of the presentation of 
General Putnam's sword to the Connecticut Historical 
Society. He gives us one of the most graphic delineations 
of General Putnam's character that we have ever seen. He 
said : 

"If Connecticut had foreseen her future from 1745 to the rev- 
olutionary period, and made for herself a hero, she would have 
forever forfeited her repute for practical common sense, if she 
had not made precisely such an one as General Putnam, The 
style of hero which those thirty years demanded was essentially 
military, for wars and convulsions decisive of our destiny were 
distinctly prognosticated; and yet a military hero that was 
adapted to our peculiar wants, graded to our scale, and willing 
to make himself generally useful. We were a feeble folk far 
away in the backwoods, just opening a stingy soil to tillage, just 
beginning to raise crops enough for home consumption, with 
naught but homespun manufactures, with meagerest foreign com- 
merce, in wholesome fear of Indian massacres ; for in 1746 the 
tomahawk and scalping-knife had been freely used within a few 
hours' march of our borders ; environed with French settlements 
and posts, and at times in imminent danger of vassalage to the 
House of Bourbon, and liable to requisitions from our own sov- 
ereign liege, whenever the wars of European ambition kindled 
into flames his American dominions. What this little frugal 
colony could have done with a hero of more magnificent and 
* Appendix A. 



^6 Life of Israel Putnam. [1764-75. 

colossal proportions, an Alexander, a Cromwell, a Napoleon, 
except to offer up itself as one meal to his insatiable maw, it is 
impossible to conceive. We craved a hero of dauntless pluck, 
of unwearisome endurance, shrewd, generous, self-abnegating, 
fertile in expedients, with more genius for forest war than for 
pitched battles and complicated campaigns, a man of muscle 
and might and will, capable of intense wrath and inviolable ob- 
stinacy, who could bend or break into military subordination 
and trustful self-surrender the Connecticut levies, raw, verdant, 
awkward as soldiers, but independent and self-complacent as 
freeholders ; while under his stubborn and imperious rule they 
were marched to Ticonderoga or Frontenac or Havana, or wher- 
ever else his Majesty chose to order them ; and after the cam^ 
paign was over and the troops discharged could render an 
exact and conceivable account of receipts and disbursements 
to the Commissioners of the Pay Table. We wanted a hero 
shajDcd more like a Cincinnatus than a Ceesar, who in the breath- 
ing times of peace could join his fellow-citizens in productive 
industry, and support the Gospel and sit in the General Assem- 
bly, — no useless drone in our hive, no barnacle on our poor 
treasury, — a hero, who in the fulness of time, when petitions, 
prayers and remonstrances had all failed, and our unborn 
rights and privileges were brought to the arbitrament of 
the battle-field, held in himself a sufficient volume of slumber- 
ing courage and martial enthusiasm to electrify our whole people, 
and dared to lead a sturdy yeomanry where any dared to follow. 
The model man which our era and our environments craved 
was none of your imperial spirits who bend all mankind into 
homage, and contemn the civil power and cross Rubicons and 
convulse the world ; but a shield and sword to an untamed com- 
monwealth in a steady struggle with untamed nature and with 
savage and civilized foes ; the farmer that could subdue its stub- 
bornest glebe ; the hunter that could cope with its most formida- 
ble beasts of prey ; the ranger that could banish the terror of 
the Indian and give security to the traveller in the forest, the 
laborer in the field, and the child in the cradle ; the advanced 
guard on the Canadian war-path, behind whom women and chil- 



^T. 46-57.] Eleven Years of Home Life. 'jy 

dren could sleep secure ; the trusted leader who could hold our 
untried ploughmen to a breastwork of hay through three assaults 
from British grenadiers." 

To illustrate this passage from Colonel Deming, and to 
show the simple-hearted and serviceable spirit of this man, 
take the following incident. In 1774 British troops were 
gathering in Boston, and the business industry of the town 
was almost paralyzed. Indeed the place began to be iso- 
lated, cut off from the interior towns, and serving simply as 
a British military post. There was distress among the loyal 
inhabitants; and other parts of New England sent large 
contributions for their relief. We copy the rest from 
Bancroft (Vol. VII. p. loi) : 

" Putnam of Connecticut, famous for service near Lake George 
and Ticonderoga, before the walls of Havana and far up the lakes 
against Pontiac, a pioneer of emigration to the southern banks of 
the Mississippi ; the oracle of all patriot circles in his neighbor- 
hood, rode to Boston with one hundred and thirty sheep as a gift from 
the parish of Brooklyn. The ' old hero ' became Warren's guest 
and every one's favorite. The officers (English) whom he visited 
on Boston Common bantered him about coming down to fight. 
'Twenty ships of the line and twenty regiments,' said Major 
Small [notice that here he sees Major Small again], ' may be 
expected from England in case a submission is not speedily made 
in Boston.' *If they come,' said the veteran, 'I am ready to 
treat them as enemies.' " 

Now, we may be sure, first of all, from the very nature of 
the man, that his own flock was as heavily drawn upon to 
make this contribution as that of any other person in Brook- 
lyn parish. And besides, he volunteered his service to see 
those sheep safely in Boston. A man of cold and aristo- 
cratic proprieties would have thought himself ruined for life 
if he had been caught in such service as this, even though 
it might be for the relief of suffering Boston. But we are 



78 Life of Israel Putnam. [1764-75. 

not aware that the man of cold and aristocratic proprieties is 
any more beloved of God or men than one who exhibits a 
spirit like this. 

And we are the more ready to take passages like this 
from the pages of Mr. Bancroft, because, as we shall see in 
the later stages of his work, he is drawn into the acceptance 
of theories, apparently without independent investigation, 
which tend to dishonor this " old hero " of whom he here 
speaks so nobly. 

This was in August, 1 774. Hardly had Putnam reached 
his home again in Pomfret, when a rumor went through the 
New England Colonies, which grew as it travelled, but which 
was founded upon a small amount of fact. It stirred the 
people of Connecticut from centre to circumference. This 
excitement was caused by a movement in the British army 
to seize the powder which had been gathered for future 
exigencies, and which was stored in a magazine between 
Cambridge and Medford. The British were successful in 
this attempt. It caused a great stir about Boston, but the 
proportions of the story, as was natural, were magnified as 
it moved on into the interior. This event happened on the 
first day of September, 1774, apparently toward night. The 
news reached General Putnam as soon as it could be carried. 
And we have the copy of the letter which he immediately 
sent to Captain Aaron Cleaveland, with the endorsement of 
Captain Cleaveland upon it, and a further endorsement by 
some one in Norwich whose name is not given. The mis- 
sive went like the war signals which the Highland Scotch 
used to speed through their vales and mountains. 

"Pomfret, Sept., 1774. 

" Capt. Cleaveland : Mr. Keys has this moment brought the 

news that the men and troops begun to fire upon the people last 

night at sunset at Boston, when a post was sent immediately off 

to inform the country. He informs that the artillery played all 



^T. 46-57.] Eleven Years of Home Life. 79 

right ; that the people were rallying universally from Boston as 
far as here and give all the assistance possible. The first was 
occasioned by the country being robbed of their powder from 
Boston as far as Framingham ; and when found out, the persons 
who went to take them were immediately fired upon. Six of our 
number were killed the first shot, and a number more wounded, 
and beg you will rally all the forces you can, and be upon the 
march immediately for the relief of Boston and the people that 
way. Israel Putnam." 

" N. B. — Send an express along to Norwich. 

"Aaron Cleaveland." 
" Forwarded from Norwich." 

Now it would be very easy for a grammarian to suggest 
several emendations in that letter in respect to style.* 
There are some awkward gaps in it, which the impetuous 
old warrior could not stop to fill up. He had to trust to 
the common sense of the man who received it to leap the 
chasms. But the man who received it took its whole 
meaning in an instant, and took it sooner than though the 
writer had stopped to fill his sentences and round out his 
periods. 

The rumor thus set in motion travelled quickly across the 
little State even to the borders of New York. Hollister, in 

* We have freely conceded that General Putnam greatly lacked literary cul- 
ture, but compare him with Colonel James Reed of New Hampshire, who did 
heroic service in the battle of Bunker Hill, and he seems in contrast like a 
liberally educated man. Here are a few sentences from a letter of Colonel 
Reed, dated at Fitz William, N. H., June 8th, 1775, copied frotn the seventh 
volume of " New Hampshire Provincial Papers," p. 508. 

" HoNRAD Sir, I bag Leve to Trobel you with one word in faver of the 
Barer Captain Colburn — that is to inform that he is one of the Siners of the 
paper of a greement to Rase a Regiment under command, and Sir as my Reg- 
iment is fit,d up with out him and as I had in Corigement that any officer that 
had got men should be taken Notis of, &c. &c. . . . . if your Honours the 
Committee would favor him in the next Regiment as a Major if a greeabel. 
.... would bag leve to subscribe myself &c." 

Colonel Reed was afterwards Brigadier-General. 



8o Life of Israel Putnam. [1764-75. 

his history says (Vol. II. p. 158), "The whole colony was 
in commotion, and it is believed that more than twenty 
thousand men were on their march for Boston before they 
were made aware that the story was without foundation." 
Mr. Hollister says "without foundation." It had, as we 
have seen, a germ of truth, but the story, in the proportions 
with which it reached Connecticut, was essentially without 
foundation. 

From these warlike thoughts and associations we turn 
now a moment to look upon Putnam amid the scenes of his 
home life, and as a citizen of the goodly town of Pomfret. 
It has been already explained how, owing to the complica- 
tions of the Mortlake Manor, Putnam did not distinctly be- 
come a citizen of Pomfret until 1752. The interval between 
that and 1755, when he went to the French War, was so short 
that he would not naturally be much developed as a citizen 
of the town. But after his return from that war, in the 
eleven years that intervened before the opening of the rev- 
olutionary period, he was quite active as a citizen. Mr. E. 
P. Hayward, the present Town Clerk of Pomfret, has fur- 
nished from the records a few items, which may illustrate 
his standing and reputation in the town during this inter- 
val. He was first chosen one of the Selectmen of the town 
in 1763. He was chosen to the same office again in 1765, 
and still again in 177 1. A Selectman in one of our old 
New England towns was exactly what the word itself im- 
plies. It was the most important office which the town in 
its municipal capacity had to bestow. It was given to men 
of wisdom and uprightness. A rash, headlong, injudicious 
man was not likely to be proposed for this office. A New 
England town * is in itself one of the most remarkable 

* We once heard an impressive remark in this connection from the lips of 
the late Professor Agassiz. He had been out the evening before (this was 
more than twenty years ago) to give a lecture in one of our Massachusetts 
towns, and he was on the morning train returning to the city. The remark 



^T. 46-57-] Eleven Years of Home Life. 8 1 

products of our western civilization. Notliing like it is 
known in Europe nor even in large portions of the United 
States, We may hope that the present tendencies among 
us will bring the town system into use in States that have 
never had it. Indeed, we know that in one at least of the 
so-called Southern States that question is now under con- 
sideration. 

We gather, from the fact that Putnam was three times 
chosen on the Board of Selectmen in Pomfret, that his 
neighbors and fellow-citizens regarded him as a safe and 
judicious man, wise in council as well as bold in action. 
In the year 1 769 he was Moderator in Town Meeting, and 
this is another testimony not without significance. He 
was on the committee to rebuild the bridge over the Quine- 
baug River, near the present village of Danielsonville. 

We adduce these little items, which may be deemed 
unimportant, simply to show what some are disposed to 
doubt, that along with his prodigious energy he had a well- 
balanced judgment and large practical knowledge. It is 
very easy by taking certain strong characteristics of Putnam 
and exaggerating them, at the same time leaving out of view 
his other qualities, to make him into a grotesque personality. 
It requires but little imagination or ingenuity to do this. 
But Putnam, while he impressed the men of his own times 
as a very unique character, did not impress them as a gro- 
tesque and ridiculous one. Would he have been " Warren's 
guest and every one's favorite," as Bancroft tells us, had he 

was in substance that he could never cease to wonder at what he saw in New 
England. Said he, " I go in any direction among these towns in the valleys 
and on the hills, and I always find an intelligent audience gathered, prepared 
to listen attentively to the scientific subjects upon which I lecture. What an 
idea it would be for me to go out in this way and lecture among the peasantry 
of France ! At Paris, at Lyons, at Marseilles and such great centres, of 
course I could find audiences of the highest intelligence. But to go out into 
the open country of France to lecture in this way would be the height of folly." 

6 



82 Life of Israel Putnam. [1764-75. 

been an outlandish boor ? Doubtless he could not handle 
his knife and fork at Warren's table with the same grace as 
could the host, who nevertheless felt honored and gratified 
by his presence. Formal and fashionable proprieties are 
one thing ; and they are not by any means to be despised. 
They contribute greatly, if not run to excess, to the pleas- 
ures of life. But there are proprieties deeper than these. 
An unselfish and accommodating spirit, a noble heart, a 
mind free from all envy and hatred, a self-forgetfulness, a 
desire to give others pleasure, — these, in our real estimates 
of character, turn the scale very quickly when weighed 
against merely conventional proprieties. And these noble 
qualities Putnam had in large measure. The testimony in 
this respect is so well-nigh universal that it is needless to 
spread the proofs in detail. He had one of the kindest and 
most compassionate hearts that ever beat in a human 
bosom, and he made the men who were near him, whatever 
might be their culture, love him ; always excepting those 
who were moved with envy at his greater popularity and 
success. 

We have already stated that Putnam lost his first wife in 
1765. Two years later, in 1767, he was again united in mar- 
riage to Mrs. Deborah Gardiner of Gardiner's Island He 
had no children by this marriage, and this wife died in 1777. 
She was at the time with him at his headquarters in the 
Highlands on the Hudson River. 

We might introduce more details respecting this period 
from 1764 to 1775, but have perhaps done enough to bring 
the man into view, as he was known among his fellow-towns- 
men and the people of Connecticut. We must pass on to 
scenes immediately preceding and accompanying the rev- 
olutionary outbreak. We can desire no more evidence than 
we have now before us, that his mind and heart were most 
deeply interested and occupied with what was passing at 



^T. 46-57.] Eleven Years of Home Life. 83 

Boston. From those hills of Eastern Connecticut he 
watched all the signs of the times with intensest curiosity, 
and every important event reported itself to him as swiftly 
as couriers could bring the news. 

The battles of Lexington and Concord took place on 
the 19th of April. Bancroft says (Vol. VII. p. 315), "On 
the morning of the 20th, Israel Putnam of Pomfret, in 
leathern frock and apron, was assisting hired men to build 
a stone wall on his farm when he heard the cry from Lex- 
ington. Leaving them to continue their task, he set off 
instantly to rouse the militia officers of the nearest towns. 
On his return he found hundreds who had mustered and 
chosen him their leader. Giving orders for them to follow, 
he himself pushed forward without changing the checked 
shirt he had worn in the field, and reached Cambridge at 
sunrise the next morning, having ridden the same horse a 
hundred miles within eighteen hours. He brought to the 
service of the country courage which during the war was 
never questioned, and a heart than which none throbbed 
more honestly or warmly for American freedom." 

This is one form of the story, but the more common form 
is that he was ploughing at the time the news reached him. 
Daniel Putnam his son, who certainly ought to know, as he 
was then in his sixteenth year, says, "When this time came 
he loitered not, but left me, the driver of his team, to 
unyoke it in the furrow, and not many days after to follow 
him to camp." We have no doubt this is the truth. 

But what he was doing at that time is of comparatively 
small consequence. What he did do under the circum- 
stances will be told through all the future ages of our his- 
tory. A straight line drawn from Pomfret, Connecticut, to 
Boston will measure not far from sixty miles. But no one 
travels through New England on straight lines even now, 
much less then. We know not precisely what route he 
took, but probably he did not reach Cambridge in less than 



84 Life of Israel Pntnam. [1764-75. 

sixty-five or seventy miles. But he had first been to the 
neighboring towns. Bancroft puts his ride, after he heard 
the news, at one hundred miles by sunrise next morning. 
This may be a little in excess of truth. Paul Revere's ride 
two nights before is made famous by its circumstances and 
the dangers that encompassed him, and especially by the 
pen of the poet who has glorified it. But here was a ride 
not attended with any such present dangers, but involving 
marvellous powers of endurance in a heavy man of fifty- 
seven years of age. And the story is not all told yet. The 
same day that he reached Cambridge he was also at Con- 
cord, and probably returned to Cambridge the same night. 
Governor Ingersoll of Connecticut, at the Concord Centen- 
nial Celebration, April 19th, 1875, in the speech he made, 
stated this fact, viz., that Putnam was at Concord on the 
2 1st of April, 1775. The statement was doubted. Judge 
Hoar thought it could not be so. Governor Ingersoll rested 
for his authority upon Hollister's "History of Connecticut," 
but would not insist upon it in the presence of those who 
might be supposed to be better informed. He went home 
and applied to that indefatigable antiquarian, J. Hammond 
Trumbull, LL. D., of Hartford, and he found and produced 
a copy of an old Norwich paper containing Putnam's letter 
written at Concord on Friday, April 21st, and published in 
Norwich Sunday, April 23d. This whole matter is so inter- 
esting, as letting us directly into the life and stir of those 
momentous days, that we give in a note the whole account 
as prepared and published by Mr. Trumbull in the Hartford 
Daily " Courant," July 24, 1875.* 

It may not be possible to tell certainly what route was 
taken by Putnam in this journey. The expresses that 
went out from Boston to that part of Connecticut seem to 

* General Putnam's Ride to Concord. — When news of the fight at 
Lexington and Concord reached Pomfret, Israel Putnam, says his biographer, 
Colonel Humphreys, "left his plough in the middle of the field, and without 



JEt. 46-57.] Eleven Years of Home Life. 35 

have gone by Worcester, and we notice also that the Mas- 
sachusetts Congress, May 13th, 1775, estabhshed the post- 
road to Woodstock by Worcester. Woodstock joins Pom- 
fret, and as Worcester was a local centre there was probably 
a better road to Boston that way than by the more south- 
ern tier of towns. The distance to-day, on the New York 
and New England Railroad, from Boston to Pomfret is given 
in its time-tables, as sixty-six miles. But that road makes 
some departures from a straight line for local accommoda- 

waiting to change his clothes set out for the theatre of action." He was in 
Concord on the second day after the battle, and the same day (April 21st), 
after a conference with the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, he wrote to 
Connecticut to advise the Governor and Council what was to be the colony's 
quota for the army to be raised in New England. These facts seem to have 
escaped the notice of our historians, and at the late Centennial Celebration in 
Concord Governor Ingersoll's allusion to Putnam's visit in 1775 did not pass 
unquestioned. 

A despatch from the Committee of Safety at Watertown, dated at 10 A. M. 
on the 19th, was received in Pomfret about 8 A. M. on the 20th, bringing news 
that the British had fired on the people at Lexington, "killed six men and 
wounded four others, and are on their march into the country." About 
3 p. M. a second despatch came to Colonel Ebenezer Williams of Pomfret, 
one of the Connecticut Committee of Safety, with an account of the fight at 
Concord. Colonel Williams forwarded the news by express to Canterbury 
and Norwich; writing under date of 3 p. M. (misprinted "A. M." in Force's 
"Am. Archives," IV. p. 363), " I am this moment informed by express," etc. 
The following letter from Putnam, dated in Concord ox^ the 21st, shows that 
he did not leave Connecticut until after the receipt of the second despatch, that 
is, until after he had news "at Pomfret" of the battle at Concord. In the 
interval, between the arrival of the first and second expresses, he was probably 
in conference with the Windham County committees and military officers. 
This letter was printed in Norwich, on Sunday the 23d, together v/ith other 
reports of the battle, in an extra from the ofiice of the Norwich " Packet." 

Norwich, April 23, Sunday, 4 p. m. 

A gentleman arrived here this Day, and has favoured us with the follow- 
ing particulars, which we think proper to communicate to the Public, who may 
depend, that the most strenuous Exertion of Abilities, and unremitting Assid- 
uity of the Publishers, shall never be wanting to give them satisfaction. 

Concord, April 21. 

To Colonel E. Williams. Sir — I have waited on the Committee of the 
Provincial Congress, and it is their Determination to have a standing Army 
of 22,000 men from the New-England Colonies, of which, it is supposed, the 



86 Life of Israel Putnam. [1764-75. 

tion. The distance by Worcester is certainly not less than 
that. 

Then we notice that Mr. Bancroft brings Putnam to 
Cambridge at sunrise June 21st, but HolHster takes him to 
Concord at the same hour. We think he went to Cambridge 
first. The letter was written from Concord ; but before he 
wrote that he had seen the Committee of Safety. This 
committee held some of their meetings in those days at 
Menotomy, which was afterwards West Cambridge, but 
now Arlington. The committee probably met there or at 
Watertown on the 2 1 st. These places would be on the way 
from Cambridge to Concord. 

But put the matter as we will, this ride of General Put- 
nam must ever stand as a most marvellous specimen of 
activity and endurance in a man of his years. 

Colony of Connecticut must raise 6,000, and begs they would be at Cambridge 
as speedily as possible, with Conveniences ; together with Provisions, and a 
Sufficiency of Ammunition for their own Use. 

The Battle here is much as has been represented at Pomfret, except that 
there is more killed and a Number more taken Prisoners. 

The Accounts at present are so confused that it is impossible to ascertain 
the number exact, but shall inform you of the Proceedings, from Time to Time, 
as we have new Occurrences ; mean Time I am, 

Sir, your humble servant, 

Israel Putnam. 

N. B. The Troops of Horse are not expected to come until further notice. 

A true copy E. Williams. 

[The broadside has this imprint : " Printed by Robertsons and Trum- 
bull, who will, in a few Days have for Sale, The Crisis, number One and 
Two — A Bloody Court ! a Bloody Ministry ! and a Bloody Parlia- 
ment ! "] 

At 9 o'clock in the evening of the 23d, a few hours after this sheet was 
printed, another letter from Putnam, dated at Cambridge, April 22, was 
received with despatches for the Committee of Correspondence. In this he 
urged immediate supplies of troops and provisions. [See Miss Caulkins's 
" History of Norwich," p. 381.] 

The Windham County "troops of horse" — forty-five men, under com- 
mand of Major Samuel McClellan (great-grandfather of Major-General George 
B. McClellan) — had marched for Lexington before the receipt of Putnam's 
letter of the 2ist. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE ARMY THAT GATHERED AT CAMBRIDGE. 

False and pernicious Conceptions of this Army. — Was it " Four Armies " or 
one " American Army " ? — Assortment of Troops. — Putnam a Brigadier- 
General. — Exchange of Prisoners. — Battle of Chelsea. — March of the 
Army around Charlestown and over Bunker Hill. — What is a Council of 
War ? — Spirit of Massachusetts. — Generals and Colonels at Cambridge 
and Vicinity. 

THERE is one fatal misconception as to the state of things 
between April 19th and June 17th, 1775, which has 
spread its disastrous trail over large portions of modern 
Bunker Hill literature. We cannot so well illustrate what 
we mean in any way as by taking the following extract from 
a letter of John Adams, written to George Brinley in 1 8 1 8 : 

" The army at Cambridge was not a national army, for there 
was no nation. It was not a United States army, for there were 
no United Colonies ; and if it could be said in any sense that 
the colonies were united, the centre of their union — the Con- 
gress at Philadelphia — had not adopted nor acknowledged the 
army at Cambridge. It was not a New England army, for New 
England had not associated. New England had no legal Legis- 
ture, nor any common executive authority, even upon the princi- 
ples of original authority or even of original power in the people. 
Massachusetts had her army, Connecticut her army. New Hamp- 
shire her army, and Rhode Island her army. These four armies 
met at Cambridge and imprisoned the British army in Boston. 
But who was the sovereign of this united or rather congregated 
army, and who was its commander-in-chief ? It had none. Put- 
nam, Poor and Greene were as independent of Ward as Ward 
was of them." 

87 



88 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775- 

(i) We call attention to two or three important facts which 
will serve to show that Mr. Adams was not fresh from his 
revolutionary readings when he penned those sentences. 
He was not over well informed about matters concerning 
which he was writing. He introduces the name of Poor 
with those of Greene and Putnam and Ward ; whereas Poor 
was not connected with the army at Cambridge at all until 
after the battle of Bunker Hill. Then he introduces him 
as though he were a General. The other three were Gen- 
erals, and he is evidently thinking of Poor as a General 
representing New Hampshire, and standing in the same 
relations to his State as did Putnam to Connecticut and 
Greene to Rhode Island. Poor was a General and a very 
able one in 1777 (appointed Brigadier-General February 
21, 1777). But he was only a Colonel up to that date, and 
if Mr. Adams had intended to introduce a Colonel into his 
category he would have named Stark, who was altogether 
the leading man from New Hampshire at that time, with 
that title. But he did not intend to speak of a Colonel; he 
had his thought fixed upon a General, and unfortunately 
selected a Colonel, who was not even about Boston in the 
early weeks at all. But Mr. Adams was still more unfor- 
tunate in another respect. While Connecticut and Rhode 
Island had not yet, by formal vote, helped to consolidate 
this army. New Hampshire had taken official action and 
had put her men upon the Massachusetts foundation. She 
did this as early as May 20th. Mr. Frothingham quotes 
the words on page 99, taken from the New Hampshire 
record, that " the establishment of officers and soldiers 
should be the same as in the Massachusetts Bay." Conse- 
quently, if Poor had been a General and had been at Cam- 
bridge before the battle (as he was not), he would have been 
no more independent of Ward, than Thomas, or Heath, or any 
other Massachusetts General. All this may serve to show 



■^T. 57.] The Army that Gathered at Cambridge. 89 

us that even a great man (as John Adams assuredly was) 
sometimes writes very much at random. 

(2) Whatever truth there is in the quotation from Mr. 
Adams, it is a rhetorical and not a historical truth. It 
relates to the legal relations of the men from the different 
States and not their relations as a matter of fact. Between 
the 19th of April and the 17th of June, 1775, the men of 
that period, looking upon that gathering of patriot soldiers 
about Cambridge, did not speak of it as "four armies." 
When Massachusetts in her Provincial Assembly was rais- 
ing her own troops and providing for them, she called them, 
as was entirely natural, the " Massachusetts army." Con- 
necticut and New Hampshire and Rhode Island did the 
same. But when those soldiers were brought together and 
grouped around General Ward in the camps about Boston, 
they were no longer spoken of as four bodies independent 
of each other. It was true the contingency might arise 
when they might be so, but they never were so. The sev- 
eral States might recall them, or issue separate and inde- 
pendent orders to them ; but the States did not issue such 
orders. It was one army, not so well organized and com- 
pacted as it might have been, and as it was destined to be, 
but still one army. 

The common method of speaking of it in those days, 
was that which we find, for example, in Sparks' s " Life of 
Washington," where he is describing the state of things 
after the battle of Lexington before Washington took com- 
mand. He says (p. 135), " The Massachusetts militia con- 
vened at Cambridge. The plan of the nezv army was soon 
arranged. General Ward was placed at its head, and recruit- 
ing orders were sent out. The other three colonies agreed 
to furnish their proportion of troops, who were raised and 
sent forward with as much expedition as possible." With 
Sparks it was " the new army," and not " four armies." 



90 Life of Israel Ptitnam. [1775. 

We repeat that it was entirely foreign to all the habits of 
the men of that day, when looking upon those military 
camps, to be talking about the " army from New Hamp- 
shire," or the " army from Connecticut." We do not find 
this style of language in the writings of that period. And 
yet almost all writers upon the battle of Bunker Hill have 
naturally felt called upon to mention the fact that the four 
New England States were not at that time legally consoli- 
dated, and that in this circumstance lay a certain element 
of weakness. Important movements might be interfered 
with by counter orders from the several States. But as a 
matter of fact, the States never did during this period throw 
themselves back upon their reserved rights, but their sol- 
diers grouped themselves into one army around General 
Artemas Ward, as commander-in-chief. The talk about 
four armies can only have reference to a possible contin- 
gency and not to a historical fact. It is like the " power 
of contrary choice " in the action of the human will. It 
resides simply in the consciousness, but is not used. And 
yet this condition of things has been spoken of so frequently 
and continuously as to produce upon the public mind an 
impression which is quite out of shape with the simple facts 
of those days. 

It is a matter of the utmost importance that we should 
have right ideas upon this point, if we would understand 
the battle of Bunker Hill that follows. And for this reason 
we do not propose to leave the matter with this general 
statement, but to look carefully into the common facts of 
that day, that we may apprehend the real relations of State 
to State, and of man to man. 

And first of all, it is to be noticed, as an open and out- 
standing fact, that the troops from the several New Eng- 
land States, gathering about Boston after the fight at Lex- 
ington, did not arrange themselves, and were not by any 



^T. 57.] The Army that Gathered at Cambridge. 91 

one arranged, after the manner of " four armies " or 
four State camps, but were mingled together and distrib- 
uted as parts of one army. The first regiment from Con- 
necticut, which was upon the ground by the ist of May, 
under the command of General Joseph Spencer, made a 
part of the right wing of the American army under Gen- 
eral John Thomas, which was stationed at Roxbury and 
Dorchester and places adjacent. The standard number for 
a Connecticut regiment at that time was a thousand men, 
and the three Connecticut regiments first raised were com- 
manded by Generals and not by Colonels. The second 
regiment from Connecticut was General Israel Putnam's, 
which was stationed at Inman's Farm, now Cambridgeport, 
making a part of the centre of the American army, under 
General Ward the commander-in-chief. The troops from 
New Hampshire made Medford their rallying point, where 
Colonel Stark had his headquarters, and they composed a 
part of the left wing of the army. The troops from Rhode 
Island were at Jamaica Plain under General Nathaniel 
Greene, making a part of General Thomas's right wing. 
This very distribution of the troops signified but one grand 
army, composed of the men from the four States. The 
other theory should show us a Connecticut encampment 
distinct and by itself, a New Hampshire encampment, and 
so on. But nothing of the kind appears. 

Then again it is to be remembered, that very many of 
the officers commanding these troops, especially those above 
the rank of Captain, had seen service as officers in the 
French and Indian War, which closed only twelve years 
before. Generals Ward, Putnam, Thomas, Spencer, and 
Pomeroy had all served in that war. The only Generals, 
so far as we remember, connected with the American army 
before the fight at Bunker Hill who had not been in the 
French War, were General Joseph Warren, General Wil- 



92 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775. 

liam Heath, and General Nathaniel Greene. They were 
younger men, General Greene being thirty-three years old 
in 1775, General Warren thirty-four, and General Heath 
thirty-eight. Strictly speaking, General Warren was not 
connected with the army in any active way before the day 
of the battle. In revolutionary matters his department had 
been that of civil affairs rather than military. ?Ie was 
made Major-General of Massachusetts troops three days 
before the battle, and died at Bunker Hill as a volunteer 
soldier. But with the exception of Warren and Greene 
and Heath, all the rest of the general officers in the camp 
about Boston were old soldiers, with their military ideas 
and habits already acquired. 

The same was true quite largely of the Colonels. Pres- 
cott, Nixon, Brewer, Learned, Stark, Whitcomb, Reed, Frye, 
Gridley and others, had received more or less military train- 
ing in the war of 1755. These men, whether from Massa- 
chusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire or Rhode Island, 
gathered about Boston in 1775 to repel a common foe. 
From the three last named States they came at the call 
of Massachusetts, urgently imploring help in her great 
exigency. Now, whatever may have been the relations of 
the four States from which they came in a legaV point of 
view, provided there were no positive orders to the con- 
trary, these old soldiers and military leaders would gravitate 
toward one organization as naturally as the rain falls from 
heaven. Massachusetts had already taken the initiatory 
steps for the organization of an army. A camp had been 
formed at Cambridge with General Artemas Ward at its 
head. On the 20th of May he was duly commissioned as 
commander-in-chief of Massachusetts troops. When the 
patriot soldiers came in, some in regiments, some in com- 
panies, and some as individuals, they reported themselves 
at headquarters and had their places assigned them, not in 



Mt. 57.] The Army that Gathered at Cambridge. 93 

four separate armies, but as parts and parcels of 07ie Amer- 
ican army. If a hundred men of the Anglo-Saxon race 
cannot be thrown together in an unoccupied spot anywhere 
upon the face of the earth without immediately creating a 
government for themselves, by a still stronger instinct do 
Anglo-Saxon soldiers gathering in this way gravitate toward 
organization and subordination. It is the first law of mili- 
tary life. And although time is required to make this 
organization compact and strong, the earliest movements 
will all be in the direction of order and unity. 

Look at the case also in another point of view. Massa- 
chusetts had asked, even with an earnest and imploring cry, 
that these men from the other States should come to her 
help. Would she not treat them as the equals of her own 
men when they came .■* They had gathered from long 
distances, had separated themselves farther from their 
homes, had overcome greater obstacles in reaching the 
scene of action, than had her own soldiers. Would she 
seek to impress upon them, when they arrived, that they had 
been called to share in the labors but not in the honors of 
the common enterprise .'' We may be very sure that Mas- 
sachusetts exhibited no such spirit in those days of danger 
and distress, and there is no occasion now for any of her 
sons to try and prove that she did ; or that she sought to 
rank herself, by any action of hers, above her sister colonies. 
The army that gathered within her borders in 1775 was the 
American army, not legally consolidated, but actually one 
by the drift and pressure of the times, and by all soldierly 
instincts. The General from Connecticut was entitled, in 
this common army, to the honors and distinctions that 
belonged to the rank of a General. Colonel Stark from 
New Hampshire, in this American army, was not one whit 
below Colonel Prescott or Nixon or Brewer from Massa- 
chusetts. The assumption by which Massachusetts, greatly 



94 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775. 

to her injury, is made to appear aristocratic in this gather- 
ing of soldiers upon her soil for a common cause, belongs 
to a later day, and was not a fact of those times. It is the 
privilege of writers, a hundred years after, to see how easy 
and natural it was for Colonel Prescott of Massachusetts to 
command Connecticut troops, but how improper and impos- 
sible even for General Putnam to command Massachusetts 
troops. ■ Such theories found no place in the American 
army besieging Boston in 1775. 

But far more convincing than any mere statements of this 
kind, are actions and events occurring from day to day, 
between the 19th of April and the 17th of June. 

In the month of May an affair took place which clearly 
illustrates the point now before us, and shows that there 
were not " four armies " besieging Boston, but one army. 
We will quote a few sentences from the " Circumstantial 
Account of the Battle of Chelsea, Hog Island," etc., which 
maybe found in Force's "Archives," Vol. II., 4th series, 
p. 719. 

"On Saturday, May 27th, 1775, a party of the American army 
at Cambridge, to the number of between two and three hundred 
men, had orders to drive off the live stock from Hog and Noddle 

Islands, which lie near Chelsea About eleven o'clock 

A. M., between twenty and thirty men went from Chelsea to Hog 
Island, and from thence to Noddle Island, to drive off the stock 
which was there, but were interrupted by a schooner and sloop, 
despatched from the fleet in Boston Harbor, and forty marines, 
who had been stationed on the island to protect the live stock. 
.... Having cleared Hog Island, the provincials drew up on 
Chelsea Neck and sent for a reinforcement of three hundred men 
and two pieces* of cannon (four-pounders), which arrived about 
nine o'clock in the evening ; soon after which General Putnam 
went down and hailed the schooner, and told the people that if 
they would submit they should have good quarters, which the 
schooner returned with two cannon shot ; this was immediately 



Mt. 57.] T/ie Army that Gathered at Cambridge. 95 

answered with two cannon from the provincials. Upon this a 
very heavy fire ensued from both sides, which lasted until eleven 
o'clock at night, when the fire from the schooner ceased ; the fire 
from the shore being so hot that her people were obliged to leave 
her and take to the boats, a great number of which had been sent 
from the ships to their assistance. .... Thus ended this long 
action without the loss of one provincial, and only four wounded. 
.... The loss of the enemy amounted to twenty killed and fifty 
wounded." 

It is implied of course, in the above extract, that Putnam 
was the commander in this expedition, and a letter of Gen- 
eral Ward's settles it that Putnam was commander. In his 
letter to John Adams the following October he expressly 
states this fact. But who were the men whom he com- 
manded "i The account tells us that they were a " party of 
the American army at Cambridge " — not a party of the 
Massachusetts army, or the Connecticut army, or the New 
Hampshire army, but of the American army. The narra- 
tor from whom we have thus far quoted, writing in the 
spirit of 1775, does not even have a care to tell us whether 
these troops came from Massachusetts or Connecticut or 
New Hampshire. It is sufficient for him that they came 
from the American army, or from the provincials, as he 
sometimes calls them. But other histories and narratives 
tell us that some of them were from Massachusetts and 
some from New Hampshire, and apparently none from Con- 
necticut. 

And there is a sequel to this story which is told us by 
Daniel Putnam, son of General Putnam, and which is quite 
as important for us to notice, as what has gone before. 

"When he [General Putnam] returned to his quarters, wet, 
and covered to the waist with marsh mud, contracted by wading 
over the flats to burn the vessel, he met there General Ward and 
Doctor Warren. Without stopping to change his dress he related 



96 Life of Israel Piitnani. [i775- 

to them the events of the day, and added, * I wish we could have 
something of the kind to do every day ; it would teach our men 
how little danger there is from cannon balls, for though they have 
sent a great many at us, nobody has been hurt by them. I would 
that Gage and his troops were within our reach, for we would be 
like hornets about their ears ; as little birds follow and tease the 
eagle in his flight, we would every day contrive to make them 
uneasy,' Warren smiled and said nothing, but General Ward 
replied, * As peace and reconciliation is what we seek for, would 
it not be better to act only on the defensive and give no unneces- 
sary provocation ? ' " * 

The point to be especially noted in this last extract is, 
that General Putnam reports himself to General Ward as 
his commanding officer and says, " I wish we could have 
something of this kind to do every day ;" which is the same 
as though he had said, " If we are to have such work to do, 
you must order it." If General Putnam and the indepen- 
dent "army from Connecticut" had alone been responsible 
for this action, there was slight need for any such remark. 
They could, according to the theory, go and come at their 
own pleasure. But it was an American army, and General 

* In Sumner's " History of East Boston," there is a much fuller account of 
this battle than the one here given. The following passage may be found on 

PP- 374-5 : 

" Putnam, inspired with the same dauntless courage with which he entered 
the den of the wolf, heading his men, and wading up to his middle in mud and 
water, poured so hot a fire upon the sloop that, very much crippled and with 
many of her men killed, she was obliged to be towed off by the boats. It is 
a striking illustration of the courage and impetuosity of Putnam, that he and 
his brave followers attacked and crippled this sloop with small arms ; that 
leaving their cannon they waded within musket distance, and there fought the 
heavy armed vessel, heedless of the great disparity of weapons and of their 
dangerous position. Putnam's spirit animated the provincials, and foremost 
in the fight himself, he was nobly sustained by his brave followers. The 
spirited words of the poet will almost literally apply to the dauntless bravery 
of Putnam in this engagement, — 

" ' There the old-fashioned Colonel galloped through the white infernal 
Powder cloud : 
And his broad sword was swinging, and his brazen throat was ringing 
Tnunpet loud.' " 



^T. 57.] The Army that Gathered at Cambridge, 97 

Ward was at its head, and Putnam was a subordinate offi- 
cer and recognized his place. And it is a fact not denied, 
that in this expedition he led Massachusetts and New 
Hampshire troops. 

Now, just at this point, to show how entirely this history 
of 1775 has been turned aside from truth by certain 
Massachusetts writers of the present day, we give a sen- 
tence from the recent little book of Colonel Francis J. 
Parker of Boston. He is giving his reasons for the belief 
that Colonel Prescott was the chief commander in the bat- 
tle of Bunker Hill, and his last reason is the following : 

" Fourth. — That General Putnam, owing no obedience to 
the commanding General and having no claim to rank in 
the Massachusetts army, could not have commanded Mas- 
sachusetts soldiers on Massachusetts soil." 

We take this sentence for illustration, because it is such 
a bold, open statement of a theory entirely unsupported by 
facts, which in more disguised forms mingles largely in 
much Bunker Hill literature from Massachusetts writers in 
these latter days, and renders what they say of small his- 
torical value. In the light of what has gone before and 
what will follow after, it is not hard to perceive that this 
sentence of Colonel Parker and all kindred ones, wherever 
found, betray a great misconception of history in 1775. As 
we have said before, these writers find no difficulty in hav- 
ing Colonel Prescott command Connecticut troops, but 
General Putnam cannot command Massachusetts troops. 
There is a haughty Massachusetts assumption here, which, 
when drawn from its concealment and openly brought to 
view, has a very ungraceful look. 

We have had a plain historical fact before us, and by its 
light we have seen that General Putnam did owq " obedi- 
ence to the commanding General," and did " command 
Massachusetts soldiers on Massachusetts soil." 
7 



98 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775- 

But let us take still other incidents from the records of 
those days, showing what Putnam's position was in this 
combined American army. In the affair at Lexington, 
April 19th, some prisoners had been taken from us, and we 
had taken some from the British. It may be that here and 
there a prisoner had been taken at other times. It matters 
not, for our purpose, when or where these prisoners were 
taken. The 6th of June, 1775, was fixed upon as a day for 
the exchange of prisoners. The whole account of the pro- 
ceedings of that day may be found in Force's " Archives," 
Vol. II., 4th series, p. 920. In this transaction. Doctor 
Joseph Warren was appointed to represent the civil author- 
ities, and Brigadier-General Putnam acted for the army. 
Doctor Warren, confessedly one of the most cultivated and 
scholarly men of that day, seems to have had no aversion 
to this companionship, any more than Washington had a 
month later, and through the following years of the war. 
The friendly relations of Warren and Putnam have been 
previously noticed. General Putnam and Doctor Warren 
rode in a carriage together from Cambridge to Charlestown, 
escorted by Captain Chester's company from Connecticut, 
and attended by the nine prisoners that were to be deliv- 
ered to the British, There they met Major Moncrief with 
the nine American prisoners that were to be restored, and 
a very pleasant interview took place between the two par- 
ties, for Moncrief and Putnam were old companions in arms 
in the French War. " After which," as the account states, 
" General Putnam with the prisoners that had been deliv- 
ered to him, etc., returned to Cambridge, escorted in the 
same manner as before." 

Now, to gain the full significance of this transaction in a 
military point of view, let it be borne in mind that these 
prisoners whom General Putnam received from the British 
authorities were all of them Massachusetts men, taken 



JEt. 57.] T/te Army that Gathered at Cambridge. 99 

prisoners probably before ever General Putnam came upon 
the ground. Four of them belonged in Boston, two in 
Cambridge, one in Danvers, one in Roxbury, and one in 
Dorchester. We have here a General from Connecticut, 
escorted by a Connecticut company, transacting very im- 
portant business, not for Massachusetts (though it chiefly 
concerned that colony), but for the American army. And 
it would seem as though a man from Connecticut high 
enough in military rank and authority, as well as in social 
standing, to be entrusted with such honorable and at the 
same time delicate negotiations as these, might possibly 
command even Massachusetts men in battle, without caus- 
ing any great shock to the feelings. 

Take still another transaction in the illustration of this 
same point, Mr. Frothingham, in his " Siege of Boston," 
(p. 107), has given us a specific account of it. He says, " On 
the 13th [May], in the afternoon, all the troops at Cambridge, 
except those oh guard, marched under General Putnahi into 
Charlestown. They were twenty-two hundred in number, 
and their line of march was made to extend a mile and a 
half. They went over Bunker Hill and also over Breed's 
Hill, came out by Captain Henley's still-house, and passed 
into the main street by the fish-market, near the old ferry 
where Charles River bridge is. They then returned to Cam- 
bridge. It was done to inspire the army with confidence. 
Though they went within reach of the guns of the eneniy, 
both from Boston and the shipping, no attempt was made 
to molest them." 

Colonel Swett, in his " Sketch of Bunker Hill Battle," 
makes a similar statement, but places the march in June. 
He says, " General Putnam, to encourage discipline and 
emulation and brave the enemy, marched in the face of 
them with all the troops from Cambridge to Charlestown 
about the loth day of June. And about the same time, 



100 Life of Israel Ptitnam. [i77S- 

to support the policy of engaging the enemy in an affair, 
he attentively reconnoitered the country with other offi- 
cers." 

Whether these two accounts refer to one and the same 
transaction, differing only in their dates, it matters not 
There is no doubt there was a movement of this kind either 
in May or June, and if there were two, all the better. Both 
writers make General Putnam the commanding officer, and 
the troops he led must have been mainly Massachusetts 
troops. They were not marching to battle, as it proved, 
and yet they were marching where it could not well be told 
beforehand what might happen. They were going within 
reach of the enemy, and going there with something of a 
defiant air and manner. And General Putnam led and 
commanded them, because he and they alike belonged to 
the one American army. Mr. Frothingham tells the story 
without the slightest hint or apparent suspicion that Gen- 
eral Putnam was not as fully entitled to lead these Massa- 
chusetts troops on that occasion as General Thomas or 
General Ward himself. 

We dwell upon this point because, as we have already 
suggested, it is a vital one in any just comprehension of the 
battle of Bunker Hill. Few writers have ever dared to 
state the opposing idea or theory in language so direct and 
blunt as that which we have copied from Colonel Parker ; 
but in a more* subtle and concealed form this opposing 
theory thrusts itself in here and there in many writings, to 
disturb the reason and turn aside the natural flow of histor- 
ical events. It is the vitiating quality in many labored 
essays and orations from the pens and lips of eminent men. 
This opposing theory all the while puts a might be in place 
of what was ; a possible contingency in the room of solid 
fact. 

We come now to other important items, all looking in the 



^T. 57.] The Army that Gathered at Cambridge. 10 1 

same direction. In all the accounts of what took place in 
those days just preceding the battle, frequent references 
are made to the Provincial Congress, to the Committee of 
Safety, and to the council of war. The Provincial Con- 
gress of Massachusetts was, of course, composed wholly of 
Massachusetts men. There were similar bodies in Connec- 
ticut, New Hampshire and the other States generally. So 
the Committee of Safety in Massachusetts was composed 
wholly of Massachusetts men. There were similar com- 
mittees in the other States. But what was a council of 
war ? Was this a Massachusetts body also .<* or were there 
four councils of war, corresponding to the four States whose 
troops were gathered about Boston in June, 1775 ? Nay, 
there was but one council of war, composed of the higher 
officers of the American army. It mattered not from which 
one of the four States these officers might come. Their 
rank and not their locality entitled them to membership ; and 
in this council one man's voice and vote were as good as 
another's. It would have been the strangest assumption in 
those days if any one had thought or dared to urge, that 
General Nathaniel Greene because he came from Rhode 
Island, or General Israel Putnam because he came from 
Connecticut, could only speak and act in these councils 
of war by Massachusetts sufferance. 

In the council held on the i6th of June, when it was 
decided to go forward immediately and take possession of 
the Charlestown heights, no man certainly was more promi- 
nent than Putnam. No writer of any repute denies his 
presence in that body. All authors of every shade of opin- 
ion recognize his activity there, and his great influence. 
He was without much doubt the leading man there, in that 
his plans and purposes prevailed over strong opposition. 
Through all the dusky years of a century intervening, no 
figure is so distinctly seen in that conference as that of Gen- 



I02 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775. 

eral Putnam. We may have occasion to refer to this council 
again, but we instance it now to show that no State lines shut 
men out from it, for it was a body representing not the " army 
of Massachusetts," or the " army of Connecticut," but the one 
American army, whose lines were coiled about Boston to 
hold the British* troops securely within their narrow con- 
fines. Now, the greater includes the less. If General Put- 
nam, by his rank, could act in a council of war, and help to 
decide (and in a divided council, perhaps, by his vote actu- 
ally decide) that Massachusetts soldiers and New Hamp- 
shire soldiers and Connecticut soldiers should together go 
into battle, how preposterous the idea that he could not 
command those very men in battle ! It might be that in 
this very crisis an order would come from the State of Con- 
necticut forbidding him, and forbidding the Connecticut 
troops from taking any part in the battle; but no such 
orders ever came, and none were expected. And in the 
absence of all such mandates the form and constitution of 
the army, in all essential points, were practically just the 
same as they were after the several States by their express 
votes were consolidated. The contingent zveakness was taken 
away by that later action, and the army was made legally 
one. Soon it came to pass that the several States did so 
act and vote, and the army was thereby secured against 
those possible contingencies that might otherwise have 
occurred. But it was not changed at all in its original con- 
stitution. It was one American army before, crude, as all 
armies hastily called together are in their beginnings, 
greatly needing time and discipline for the development of 
soldierly qualities, — but one army, grouped around General 
Artemas Ward of Cambridge. 

If any more proof is needed that General Putnam could 
command " Massachusetts soldiers on Massachusetts soil," 
it may be mentioned as one of the simple outstanding facts 



■^T. 57.] The Army that Gathered at Cambridge. 103 

of those days before the battle, that it was a part of his 
daily life to command Massachusetts soldiers and New 
Hampshire soldiers. Colonel Daniel Putnam, his son, who 
was with him daily in his life at Cambridge, makes the fol- 
lowing statement (" Connecticut Historical Collections," Vol. 
I. p. 232) : " It is true there was at that time no other Con- 
necticut troops at Cambridge but Putnam's regiment and 
two or three independent companies ; but Sargeant's reg- 
iment (his men were from New Hampshire), posted at 
Inman's house, and Patterson's, still farther advanced towards 
Lechmere's Point (a Massachusetts regiment), were placed 
under his immediate orders. I know this fact from having 
often myself in the night season accompanied the officers 
who performed the " grand rounds " for General Putnam's 
command; and also that the selection of officers for this 
duty was made alternately from those regiments and his 
own." 

This force, which General Putnam thus commanded day 
by day, was the advanced guard of the American centre. 
It held the post of honor and of danger. These troops 
were at Cambridgeport and parts adjacent. They were 
nearest the enemy, and there was good reason in General 
Ward's mind why Putnam should be the man to have charge 
of this advanced post, nor was there the slightest question 
with him as to the right of General Putnam to command 
Massachusetts troops. That is a difficulty encountered 
only by men a century afterwards, who write history accord- 
ing to their ideals, and not according to plain and open 
facts. 

We have been minute on this point, for it was needful to 
be so. The moral of the whole is obvious. In this Ameri- 
can army, nothing hinders a General or a Colonel from New 
Hampshire, Rhode Island or Connecticut from doing pre- 
cisely what a General or a Colonel from Massachusetts can 



104 Life of Israel Putnam, [i77S- 

do. In the battle of Bunker Hill, which is soon to come, it 
is not of the slightest consequence from what State the 
chief commander comes. All that is wanted is the right 
man in the right place. If from either of the four States, 
he will still be subordinate to General Ward at Cambridge. 



CHAPTER VI. 

LEADING OFFICERS OF THIS ARMY. 

Artemas Ward. — John Thomas. — Joseph Spencer. — Seth Pomeroy. — Wil- 
liam Heath. — Nathaniel Greene. — Joseph Warren. — Israel Putnam. — 
The Colonels and their subsequent Promotions. — Who was the most 
popular Officer .-• — Who would most naturally lead in any bold Military 
Enterprise ? 

IT will be an instructive record, and will throw light upon 
certain historical problems, if we pass rapidly in review 
the chief officers directly and indirectly connected with this 
army about Boston in the spring and early summer of 1775, 
or till July 3d, when Washington took command. 

General Artemas Ward, its commander-in-chief, was a 
native of Shrewsbury, born in 1727, and graduated at Har- 
vard College in 1 748. He was a man of good culture, and 
had already acted a creditable part as a member of the 
Provincial Assembly of Massachusetts. He had served 
under Abercrombie in the French War, but seems to have 
been placed at the head of the army at Cambridge rather 
as a civilian than as having any special military history. 
Bancroft says of him (Vol. VH. p. 324), " Ward, the General 
who was at Cambridge, had the virtues of a magistrate 
rather than a soldier. Pie was old, unused to a separate 
military command, and so infirm that he was not fit to 
appear on horseback, and he never could introduce exact 
discipline among free men, whom even the utmost vigor 
and ability might have failed to control, and who owned no 
superiority but that of merit, no obedience but that of will- 



io6 Life of Israel Ptitnam. [1775. 

ing minds." Mr. Bancroft calls him old, but he was only 
forty-eight, which certainly cannot be called old for a man 
in his position. Several of the Generals about him were 
older than he. He was commissioned as commander-in- 
chief of the Massachusetts troops on the 20th of May, and 
the officers from the other colonies, without dispute, 
accepted as their commander-in-chief the man whom Mas- 
sachusetts had appointed before their coming. 

General John Thomas, commanding the right wing at 
Roxbury, was a soldier of a very different stamp and char- 
acter from General Ward. Born at Marshfield in 1725, he 
was educated as a physician, and became an army surgeon 
in 1746. Showing soldierly qualities, he was taken from 
his place as a surgeon to become a military leader. He 
was made a Colonel in the French War in 1759, and com- 
manded a regiment at Crown Point. In February, 1775, 
he was made Brigadier-General of Massachusetts troops. 
He was a man with the true proportions of a soldier. He 
was two years older than Ward. 

General Joseph Spencer, born in East Haddam, Connec- 
ticut, in 1 7 14, was thirteen years older than Ward. He 
was a man of good culture and of good military abilities, 
perhaps not a great General, but one much trusted and 
honored. He, also, had been a Colonel in the French War, 
and had seen much hard service. He was made second 
Brigadier-General of Connecticut troops, April 26th, 1775, 
and was stationed at Roxbury in command of a Connecti- 
cut regiment of one thousand men, as an under officer of 
General Thomas, 

General Seth Pomeroy, from Noithampton, was a veteran 
soldier of sixty years, a man of unquestionable courage and 
force. He was a Captain in the colonial army as early 
as 1744, a Major in 1745, and a Lieutenant-Colonel in the 
French War in the campaign of 1755. Bancroft quotes him 



^T. 57.] Leading Officers of this Army. 107 

as sending back a message to Massachusetts from the 
depths of the northern wilderness, where he was employed 
in that memorable summer of 1755, "Come to the help 
of the Lord against the mighty ; you that value our holy 
religion and our liberties will spare nothing, even to the 
one-half of your estate." He was made a Brigadier-Gen- 
eral of Massachusetts troops in February, 1775. 

General William Heath was a younger officer, though 
not so young as Greene or Warren. He was born in Rox- 
bury in 1737, and displaying military talents and tendencies, 
was in 1770 made commander of the Ancient and Honora- 
ble Artillery Company. Early in 1775 he was chosen Brig- 
adier-General of Massachusetts troops, and was stationed 
at Roxbury under General Thomas. 

General Joseph Warren has a story which is familiar to 
almost every one. We shall not repeat it here in full, as he 
will be noticed from time to time at a later stage. But the 
outline of his history is briefly this : He was born at Roxbury 
in 1741, was a graduate of Harvard, a skilful physician and 
an accomplished scholar. He was exceedingly active and 
courageous in the stirring scenes in Boston just before the 
revolutionary outbreak. He was a man greatly beloved by 
all classes of the people, high and low, rich and poor. His 
sphere had been especially that of civil affairs and not mili- 
tary. But so popular was he, that on the 14th of June 
he was chosen by the Massachusetts Assembly Major-Gen- 
eral of her troops. He had not been regularly commis- 
sioned on the 1 7th, when the battle was fought, and for still 
other reasons refused to take command. He died on Bun- 
ker Hill simply as a volunteer. 

General Nathaniel Greene of Rhode Island, under 
Thomas on the right wing, was the youngest man bearing 
the title of General in the army about Boston, He was 
only thirty-three years old, but of great promise, and this 



lo8 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775- 

promise was amply fulfilled during the years of the war. 
He was the son of a Quaker preacher in Rhode Island, but 
his early life had been one of labor and hardship. He had 
an insatiable thirst for knowledge. The schools in Rhode 
Island were poor, but he managed to find books and pick 
up learning by instinct. The story is told in his " Life " 
how, when a youth, he visited Newport with some articles 
which he had manufactured for sale, and when he had sold 
them and obtained the money, going out into the street he 
met a man whose appearance attracted him, and he said to 
him, " I want to buy a book." This man proved to be no 
other than the Congregational minister of Newport, Rev. 
afterwards Dr. Ezra Stiles, for eighteen years President of 
Yale College. He took interest in the young man, went 
with him and helped him to make the purchase, and the 
book that was bought was no other than " Locke on the 
Human Understanding." 

When the alarm sounded from Lexington little Rhode 
Island voted fifteen hundred men, to be organized in three 
regiments, with Greene for Brigadier-General. The Rhode 
Island troops as fast as they were enlisted were forwarded 
to Jamaica Plain, and when Greene came to take command 
he found turmoil and disorder. But after a time he brought 
order out of confusion, and became subsequently one of the 
most brilliant commanders in the war, and a great favorite 
of Washington. 

General Israel Putnam being the subject of this volume, 
we need not enlarge here upon his previous history, which 
has been already given. It is well, however, simply to 
recall the fact that he went through the whole of the French 
War, and came out from it with the title of Colonel. He 
was made third Brigadier-General of Connecticut troops, 
April 26th, 1775. 

Colonel John Whitcomb was chosen Major-General of 



^T. 57.] Leading Officers of this Army. 109 

Massachusetts troops June isth, four days before the bat- 
tle, but, like Warren, had not been commissioned. 

Having given this rapid outline sketch of the previous 
history of these general officers, it rnay be well also to 
cast a rapid glance over their future career. 

General Artemas Ward was chosen first Major-General 
of the Continental army by the Congress at Philadelphia 
on the very day of the Bunker Hill battle. Being already 
put forward by Massachusetts as commander-in-chief of the 
patriot army about Boston, the Congress at Philadelphia 
very naturally elected him to this highest place. But he 
resigned in the following April, and returned to civil life. 
What General Washington thought of him as a military 
man after he came to be acquainted with him, is made 
known very clearly by a letter* which he wrote to General 
Charles Lee in May, 1776, in reference to this resignation. 
There is a certain element in the letter not often found in 
Washington's writings. 

" General Ward, upon the evacuation of Boston, and find- 
ing that there was a possibility of his removing from the 
smoke of his own chimney, applied to me, and wrote to 
Congress for leave to resign. A few days afterward some 
of the officers, as he says, getting uneasy at the prospect of 
his leaving them, he applied for his letter of resignation 
which had been committed to my care ; but behold ! it had 
been carefully forwarded to Congress, and, as I have since 
learned, judged so reasonable {want of health being the 
plea), that it was instantly complied with." f 

He was a valuable man in civil life, and was at a later 

* " Lee Papers," Vol. II. p. 13. 

t "Continental Congress, Tuesday, April 23, 1776. — A letter of the 
I2th, from Major-General Ward,\>€\x\^ received and read, repeating his desire 
for leave to resign, 

^'■Resolved, That the resignation of Major-General fVard and oi Brigadier- 
General Frye be accepted, and that the President inform them by letter." 



no Life of Israel Putnam. [i77S- 

period for several years Member of Congress. But in the 
management of armies he was utterly out of place. He 
died in 1800. 

General John Thomas was made Continental Brigadier- 
General in June, 1775, and Major-General in March, 1776. 
He was the chief military leader under Washington in tak- 
ing possession of Dorchester Heights, and was soon after 
sent upon a military expedition to Canada, and died there 
of small-pox. May 30th, 1776. 

General Joseph Spencer was made Continental Brigadier- 
General in June, 1775, and Major-General in 1776. In cer- 
tain matters of a general nature Spencer was much em- 
ployed by Washington. We have seen the parole written 
by his own hand, when Major-General Richard Prescot of 
the British army was a prisoner entrusted to his care. It 
is a well worded, handsomely written paper, which General 
Prescot was to sign, promising to keep himself, until his 
exchange, under the eye of Governor Trumbull of Connecti- 
cut, and not to go beyond the bounds of the " First Parish 
of Lebanon." He promised also, upon his honor as a man 
and a soldier, to reveal nothing to the prejudice of the 
patriot cause which might come to his knowledge during 
his confinement. General Prescot's signature to this paper 
is in striking contrast to Spencer's writing. It is extremely 
shaggy and rough, though not uncultivated. 

General Heath became Major-General of Massachusetts 
troops June 21st, 1775, then Continental Brigadier-General, 
and in 1776 Major-General. He was an able officer. 

General Nathaniel Greene, before the close of the war, 
rose to a high position in the esteem of Washington and 
the country. 

General Warren's untimely death will be noticed else- 
where. 

Though Israel Putnam was outranked in this army at the 



^T. 57.] Leading Officers of this Army. Ill 

time of the battle by Thomas, Spencer, Pomeroy, Heath, 
and Whitcomb, yet the Congress at Philadelphia had such 
an opinion of him that, passing by all these Generals, they 
raised him at once to the high position of Continental 
Major-General, June 19th, 1775. On June 17th, Artemas 
Ward and Charles Lee were chosen to this office, and on 
June 19th, Philip Schuyler and Israel Putnam ; and of the 
four, Putnam only was chosen unanimously. 

It may be well to trace here, in few words, the subse- 
quent military career of these four Major-Generals first 
chosen. General Ward, as we have already shown, resigned 
in the April following, and his resignation was cheerfully 
accepted. 

Charles Lee, the second Major-General, was a man of 
genius, literary and military, but a strange character. He 
was a Welshman, and a kind of knight-errant adventurer. 
He had served in the European wars, and in the French 
and Indian War. He had a very high opinion of himself, 
and did not hesitate in his correspondence to criticise 
severely the conduct of Washington. He undertook to 
teach Major-General Heath to obey him, without much 
regard to Washington's instructions; tells him, "For the 
future I must and will be obeyed." So he went on for a 
time, performing some excellent service, but being restless, 
ungovernable, domineering. In 1778, he was "arrested for 
disobedience of orders, for misbehavior before the enemy, 
and for disrespect to the commander-in-chief." These 
charges were sustained. He was found guilty and left the 
service. 

Dr. Belknap, in his journal, thus describes General Lee 
as he appeared when connected with the army at Cam- 
bridge : " General Lee is a perfect original, a good scholar 
and an odd genius ; full of fire and passion, and but little 
good manners, a great sloven, wretchedly profane, and a 
great admirer of dogs." 



112 Life of Israel Pnt7tam. [1775. 

James Warren, who succeeded Joseph Warren as Presi- 
dent of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, writing to 
Samuel Adams, July 9th, 1775, thus describes General 
Lee : " I know not what to say of your friend Lee. I 
believe he is a soldier, and a very industrious, active one ; 
he came in just before dinner, drank some punch, said 
he wanted no dinner, took no notice of the company, 
mounted his horse, and went off again to the lines. I 
admire the soldier, but think civility or even politeness not 
incompatible with his character." (Wells's " Life of Samuel 
Adams," Vol. II. p. 316.) Mrs. Warren, on the same page, 
adds her opinion, and describes him as " plain in his person 
to a degree of ugliness ; careless even to impoliteness ; his 
garb ordinary ; his voice rough ; his manners rather morose ; 
yet sensible, learned, judicious and penetrating." 

Philip Schuyler, the third Major-General, for reasons 
not so plain, — indeed some have thought him very unjustly 
treated, — was superseded in 1777 by General Horatio 
Gates. 

Putnam, as we have seen, was chosen last and alone unani- 
mously, and it happened that he received his commission 
as Major-General before any of the others. Such objec- 
tions were raised to the others when Washington reached 
the camp, that there was a delay in giving them their com- 
missions. We are not suiBciently versed in military mat- 
ters to know precisely what the official ruling in this case 
would be. Some writers speak of Putnam as second in 
command from the very day when Washington reached 
Cambridge, because he first received his commission ; and 
certainly Washington treated him as his second self imme- 
diately, and in the years following. He kept him at the 
centre near his own person, placing Artemas Ward over the 
right wing, and Charles Lee over the left. 

But at any rate he was second to Washington after the 



V 



JEt. S7.] Leading Officers of this Army. 113 

year 1778, for the three elected before him were by that 
time all laid aside. When Putnam was compelled to leave 
the army in 1779, he did not lose his rank. Had he been 
able to return, as he sometimes hoped, he would have gone 
back to the same standing. 

Before enumerating the Colonels connected with this 
patriot army, it may be well to recall the fact that sisveral 
of the regiments were commanded by Generals. General 
Ward had a regiment of which Jonathan Ward was Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel. General Pomeroy had a regiment of which 
Colonel John Fellows was next in command. General 
Thomas had a regiment of which John Bailey was Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel. General Heath also had a regiment. The 
two regiments from Connecticut, of one thousand men 
each, were commanded by Generals Spencer and Putnam. 

But of Colonels, the list will include the following names : 
John Stark, James Reed and Enoch Poor from New Hamp- 
shire (Poor joined the army the day after the battle). The 
Massachusetts Colonels were Asa Whitcomb,* James Frye, 
Joseph Frye, Ebenezer Bridge, John Whitcomb, William 

* We find the following incident of Colonel Asa Whitcomb in the New 
England "Chronicle" for January nth, 1776, copied from the New London 
" Gazette " : 

" Deacon Whitcomb of Lancaster, who was a member of the Assembly of 
Massachusetts Bay till the present war commenced, had served in former 
wars, and been in different engagements, served as a Colonel in the Conti- 
nental army ; but on account of his age was left out upon the new regulation. 
His men highly resented it, and declared they would not list again after their 
time was out. The Colonel told them he did not doubt there were sufficient 
reasons for the regulation, and he was satisfied with it ; he then blamed them 
for their conduct, and said he would enlist as a private. Colonel Brewer 
heard of it, and offered to resign in favor of Colonel Whitcomb. The whole 
coming to General Washington's ears he allowed of Colonel Brewer's resig- 
nation in Colonel Whitcomb's favor, appointed the former Barrack-Master 
till he could further promote him, and acquainted the army with the whole 
affair in general orders. Let antiquity produce a more striking instance of 
true greatness of soul." 



1 14 Life of Israel Putnam. [177S- 

Prescott, John Glover, John Fellows, Ebenezer Learned, 
James Read, John Nixon, Theophilus Cotton, Moses Little, 
Ephraim Doolittle, Samuel Gerrish, Thomas Gardner, Rich- 
ard Gridley, James Scammans, John Mansfield, Timothy 
Walker, Timothy Danielson, John Patterson, Jonathan 
Brewer, Benjamin R. Woodbridge, and David Brewer. 
Besides these, Massachusetts had several Colonels which 
were early employed more in a civil capacity, as members 
of Committee of Safety, etc., but afterwards figured in mili- 
tary affairs, such as Azor Orne, Joseph Palmer, and Benja- 
min Lincoln. There were three Colonels from Rhode 
Island, Thomas Church, Daniel Hitchcock and James 
Mitchell Varnum. 

Here were thirty-four men, with the title of Colonel, 
connected directly or indirectly with the American army 
before the arrival of Washington, and there may have been 
one or two others with the same rank. It was altogether 
natural that these officers, the heads of regiments earliest 
in the field, showing a prompt devotion to the patriot cause, 
should, if they displayed even a fair military ability, be 
promoted as time passed on. For the war was to be long, 
and there would be ample time for real merit to be re- 
warded. If one were to ask certain men who have studi- 
ously read some of the modern histories, and neglected 
the old, what Colonel from all this list would be first singled 
out for immediate promotion, they would answer unhesi- 
tatingly that it would be Colonel William Prescott of course, 
that his great and heroic services at the battle of Bunker 
Hill entitled him to the first consideration of the military 
authorities. But how very, very different this happens to 
be from the historical facts. Let us study attentively this 
remarkable record. 

Of the Colonels contemporary with him in this patriot 
army of 1775, John Nixon, Ebenezer Learned, John Fel- 



JEr. $7.] Leading Officers of this Army. 115 

lows, John Glover, Joseph Palmer, John Patterson, John 
Stark, James Reed, Benjamin Lincoln, James M. Varnum, 
Enoch Poor, Azor Orne, John Whitcomb, Joseph Frye, 
Richard Gridley and Daniel Hitchcock, sixteen of them, 
became Brigadier-Generals or Major-Generals ; some of 
them speedily, and some at later stages during the progress 
of the war. 

The last named, Daniel Hitchcock, was only an acting 
Brigadier, but would doubtless soon have received a com- 
mission except for his untimely death in i 'j'j'j. So eminent 
were his services at the battle of Princeton, where he com- 
manded a brigade, that Washington, with his large and 
generous nature, led him before the army after the battle, 
and taking him by the hand, publicly thanked him in that 
presence.* 

But the promotions out of this patriot army do not 
stop here. Men from lower grades of military rank also 
rose to these honorable places and distinctions. Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Brickett, of Frye's regiment, and one of 
Prescott's under officers in that night expedition, June 
1 6th, became Brigadier-General in the following year. 
John Greaton, a militia officer in Roxbury before the 
war, was afterwards made Brigadier-General. Rufus Put- 
nam, Lieutenant-Colonel of David Brewer's regiment, rose 
to the rank of Colonel very speedily, and was made Brig- 
adier-General before the war ended. Eleazer Brooks, 
only a Captain of militia before the war, also became Briga- 

* In the life of General Nathaniel Greene, by George Washington Greene, 
his grandson, there is a reference to this Colonel Hitchcock connected with the 
event of his death in 1777. It may be found Vol. I. p. 312. The author says, 
" I have already had occasion to mention more than once the name of Daniel 
Hitchcock, who had accompanied Greene to Boston as Colonel of one of the 
three regiments which formed the Rhode Island contingent. From that 
time to this (Jan. 1777), he has continued with the army, performing during 
the last few weeks the duties of a Brigadier, winning honor wherever honor 
was to be won, much loved by his own men and respected by all." 



Ii6 Life of Israel Putnam. [i77S- 

dier-General. Samuel B. Webb, simply a Lieutenant of a 
company among those Connecticut men by the fence, was 
made soon after one of Putnam's Aids, and subsequently 
Washington's Aid, with the title of General. Captain 
Knowlton, commanding those Connecticut men in the bat- 
tle, was soon chosen Major, then Lieutenant-Colonel, and 
was as clearly on the upward road to honors as any man in 
the army, when his course was cut short in 1776, by his 
death at Harlem Heights. Of him it was said, " He would 
have been an honor to any country." Lieutenant Thomas 
Grosvenor (another Lieutenant of a company by that fence) 
afterwards became Colonel. Captains James Clark, John 
Chester, George Reid and Henry Dearborn (the two last 
named of Stark's regiment), all rose to the rank of Colonel. 
Major John Brooks, another of Prescott's under officers in 
that night march, was promoted to be Lieutenant-Colonel, 
then Colonel, then Acting Adjutant-General at the battle 
of Monmouth, and afterwards Governor of the Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts. 

It will be seen by this rapid review that some of the 
most marked cases of promotion above enumerated were 
for services rendered at the battle of Bunker Hill, showing 
that our fathers in 1775 were not oblivious to merit, but on 
the other hand that they sought to foster and encourage it. 

And Colonel William Prescott was never promoted. He 
remained in the army until 1777, while these men around 
him — his contemporaries in the spring and summer of 
1 775 — were rising up to take these higher places, but he 
remained stationary, keeping the same military title which 
he brought with him from Pepperell on that historic 19th 
of April. What shall we say to these things } In the eye 
of our revolutionary fathers, was he the same man that is now 
paraded before us in Bunker Hill orations, in some of the 
Boston newspapers, and in many modern books and pam- 
phlets ? Did the men of 1775 think of him as a soldier of 



^T. 57-] Leading Officers of this Army. Wj 

any special military ability ? Is it not apparent, that from 
what they saw and knew of him at the battle of Bunker 
Hill, where he was for the first time in his life tested in his 
military capacity, they looked upon him as a man " weighed 
in the balances and found wanting." * And we may have 
some further glimpses of him, before the volume closes, 
which will help us to the same conclusions. It is next to 
a certainty, if he had acquitted himself well in that action, 
he would have been speedily promoted. He was of good 
family and of good estate, holding a most honorable posi- 
tion in society, and it was as natural for him, other things 
being equal, to take these steps upward as for any man in 
that army. We cannot resist the conclusion that this 
silence and neglect on the part of the military authorities, 
in his case, was a verdict of military incapacity. 

* We place here in a note an item of evidence, that may not impress others 
as it does the writer, but it certainly seems to show that there was no very 
great enthusiasm over Colonel Prescott in the days immediately following the 
battle. We 'copy from "American Archives," 4th Series, Vol. II. pp. 
1 1 19-20. 

" Massachusetts Provincial Congress. — The petition of officers belong- 
ing to Colonels Prescott, Frye and Bridges's Regiments, humbly sheweth, — 
"That whereas in the late Battle of Charlestown on the 17th of this 
instant, June, a number of things belonging to us fell into the enemy's 
hands, whereby we are deprived of some necessary clothing, arms, etc.: As 
the loss is considerable, we beg that (if it may be consistent with the honor 
and dignity of the Congress, and the good of the country), they have an allow- 
ance for the same as your Honors shall see fit j and your petitioners as in 
duty bound, will ever pray. 
" [Signed by William Prescott, who heads the list, and seventeen other officers 

of the three regiments.] 
"June 27th, 1775." 

Upon this the following action was taken : 

"Watertown, June 29th, 1775. 

" The Committee appointed to consider the within Petition beg leave to 
report that the petitioners have leave to withdraw their petition." 

New Hampshire rewarded her men for their losses in this battle, though 
poorly able to do so in comparison with Massachusetts. We cannot but think 
if Colonel Prescott had just performed such great and heroic services as now 
claimed, this petition, with his name heading it, would not have been so coolly 
bowed out of the Massachusetts Assembly. 



Ii8 Life of Israel Putnam. [i77S- 

But leaving now the subject of military promotions, let 
us turn to a more general consideration. 

Of all the military men gathered about Boston in that 
early summer of 1775 (Generals and Colonels), who was 
the man attracting chief attention, the most acknowledged 
leader, the most popular man among both citizens and 
soldiers ? We answer unhesitatingly. General Israel Put- 
nam. By all the historical lights shed over those times, 
there would seem to be room but for one answer to that 
question. We have already seen how popular he was 
about Boston in the year before, what a magic influence 
stood connected with his name and his presence. Ban- 
croft has told us that when he came to Boston in August, 
1774, he "was Warren's guest and everyone's favorite." 
And Mr. Frothingham, referring to this same visit, in his 
"Life and Times of Joseph Warren" (p. 341), says, "War- 
ren's guest. Colonel Putnam, remained in town several 
days. 'The old hero, Putnam,' Dr. Young writes, ' arrived 
in town on Monday, bringing with him one hundred and 
thirty sheep from the little parish of Brooklyn. He cannot 
get away, he is so much caressed both by the officers and 
the citizens.' " 

The same universal favor and admiration attended him 
when he came in 1775 to join the army, and followed him 
all through those exciting days. The facts already brought 
to view in the previous narrative are conclusive enough in 
this direction. He is the man sent to represent the army 
when the Massachusetts prisoners are to be received back 
from the British. He is the general officer to lead the 
troops in Cambridge almost en masse around the peninsula 
of Charlestown and over the heights of Bunker Hill. He 
o-oes as commander of the force of Massachusetts and 
New Hampshire men, to fight the battle of Chelsea, in 
which they beat the British and burned their ship. He is 
the man of all others whom General Ward chooses to set 



^T. 57-] Leadi7tg Officers of this Army. 119 

in his own front, at the point nearest and most exposed to 
the enemy. If General Putnam with his Connecticut regi- 
ment is at Inman's farm, a mile in advance of his own 
headquarters, he, in his extreme timidity, can rest more se- 
curely than under any other disposition he can make. In 
all those weeks, between April 19th and June 17th, the 
figure of old General Putnam in that camp at Cambridge 
is the one which confronts the student of history more 
frequently, and in sharper, bolder outlines than any other. 
Colonel Samuel Swett, a Massachusetts man, in his essay 
written in 1850, says, " No military despot ever was obeyed 
with more implicit subjection than Putnam was, .... by 
every one, officers and men, from their enthusiastic love 
and admiration of him, and boundless confidence in him as 
a great, experienced and fortunate hero and patriot." 

It is easy to multiply these evidences of Putnam's popu- 
larity, as he figured in the army about Boston in the spring 
and summer of 1775. Mr. Frothingham helps us to illus- 
trations, for he is always faithful in gathering the primary 
facts on which judgments may be formed. On page 165, 
in a note, he gives us two brief extracts from the letter 
which the Committee of Safety wrote to Putnam in 1776, 
in which they tell him that his conduct, " while in Cam- 
bridge, in every respect, and more especially as a General, 
.... we hold in the highest veneration, and ever shall." 
And again, in the same letter, they speak of " the extraordi- 
nary services you have done to this town, which must 
always be acknowledged with the highest gratitude, not 
only by us, but by rising generations." 

And he has preserved the letter which Captain Chester 
wrote to Connecticut, two days after the battle, in which he 
said, " Head-officers is what we stand greatly in need of ; 
we have no acting head here but Putnam ; he acts nobly in 
everything." 



120 Life of Israel Putnam. [i77S- 

When the battle of Bunker Hill was fought, Silas Deane 
of Connecticut was at Philadelphia, a member of the Conti- 
nental Congress. His letters (" Connecticut Historical Col- 
lections," Vol. H.) will show us what was passing in the 
minds of men in that memorable summer of 1775. The 
news of the battle reached Philadelphia on the morning of 
June 2 2d. It took nearly five days at that period to con- 
vey this exciting intelligence from Boston to Philadelphia. 
On that day he writes to his wife, "We this moment 
received advice of a battle at Bunker Hill, but the account 
is very confused." On the 9th of July he writes again, 
" New England, with all its foibles, must be the glory and 
defence of America, and the cry here is, Connecticut for- 
ever ! so high has the universally applauded conduct of our 
Governor, and the brave intrepidity of old General Putnam 
and his troops, raised our colony in the estimation of the 
whole continent." 

Then we have a letter written about this time to Mr. 
Deane from Samuel B. Webb in the camp at Cambridge, in 
which he says, " You'll find the Generals Washington and 
Lee are vastly fonder and think higher of Putnam than any 

man in the army ; and he truly is the hero of the day 

Better for us to lose four Spencers than half a Putnam." 

Very soon Mr. Deane writes again to his wife, and speaks 
of " Putnam, on whom by every account the whole army 
has depended ever since the battle of Lexington." And 
again, July 20th, he says, " Putnam's merit rung through 
this continent, his fame still increases, and every day justi- 
fies the unanimous applause of the continent. Let it be 
remembered he had every vote of the Congress, and his 
health has been the second or third at almost all our tables 
in this city. But it seems he does not wear a large wig nor 
screw his countenance into a form that belies the senti- 
ments of his generous soul." 



^T. 57.] Leading Officers of this Army. 121 

Now, let it be remembered that this is not the language 
of a great oration an hundred years afterward. It is contem- 
porary language, describing the passing emotions of men in 
regard to matters then transpiring. And it is very remarka- 
ble language, such as men of Mr. Deane's standing and 
character do not use except in connection with events very 
important and exciting. 

But if we want any more evidence of Putnam's fame and 
popularity in 1775, take the following odd letter from Major- 
General Lee, introducing to Putnam an Episcopal minister. 
We find this letter in the diary of Dr. Belknap, as pub- 
lished in one of the volumes of the Massachusetts Histori- 
cal Society (1858-1860, p. Zfj. 

"Hobgoblin Hall, Oct. 19th, 1775. 

" Dear General : Mr. Page, the bearer of this, is a Mr. Page. 
He has a laudable ambition of seeing the great General Put- 
nam. I therefore desire that you would array yourself in all 
your majesty and terrors for his reception. Your blue and gold 
must be mounted, your pistols stuck in your girdle ; and it would 
not be amiss if you should black one half of your face. 

" I am, dear General, with fear and trembling, your humble 
servant, Charles Lee." 

At the very time when this patriot army was operating 
about Boston in the summer of 1775, John Trumbull was 
writing his somewhat famous poem, " McFingal," in Four 
cantos. Drawing illustrations from passing events, and 
showing how easy it is for men, in certain circumstances, 
not to keep their promises, he says, — . 

" So Gage, of late, agreed you know, 
To let the Boston people go. 
Yet when he saw, 'gainst troops that braved him, 
They were the only guards that saved him, — 
Kept off that Satan of a Putnam 



122 Life of Israel Putnam, [1775- 

From breaking in to maul and mutt'n him ; 
He'd too much wit such league to observe, 
And shut them in again to starve." 

One who signs himself "A Friend to Truth," writing from 
Watertown August loth, 1775 (see "American Archives," 
4th Series, Vol. III. p. 84), in pointing out men from Con- 
necticut who did meritorious service in the battle of Bunker 
Hill, says, " In this list of heroes it is needless to expatiate 
on the character and bravery of Major-General Putnam, 
whose capacity to form and execute great designs is known 
through Europe^ 

Indeed, if we have rightly studied the history of those 
days, it was out of this very popularity as before suggested 
that the trouble has since arisen. Human nature was not 
materially different then from what it is now. It was but 
natural, taking mankind as they average, that among the 
higher officers of that army there should be feelings of 
jealousy that a General from another province should so 
carry all before him, and rise in popularity to such a height 
above them.* Envy and dislike were thus secretly scat- 
tered abroad, which, like the seeds under the mud of the 
Nile, were destined long afterwards to spring up and bear 
their evil fruit. When General Dearborn took up his pen, 
forty-three years after the battle, and more than twenty-five 
years after Putnam was in his grave, to revile the old hero, 
" whose courage," Bancroft says, " was never questioned 
during the war," he let us, without thinking of it, at once 
into the secret motives that animated him. It was Put- 
nam's " remarkable popularity " and " unaccountable popu- 
larity " that troubled him. He is also witness that this 

* These envious feelings are easily traced in Heath's memoirs, published 
in 1798, as also in General Ward's letter to John Adams, written Oct. 30th, 
1775, in which he says, " Some have said hard things of the officers belonging 
to this Colony and despised them." 



^T. 57.] Leading Officers of this Army. 123 

popularity once existed as we have claimed ; but he proposes 
in 1 818 to explain it all away, and show that there was no 
ground for it, and that people were deluded. Like " the 
atrocious crime of being a young man," so Putnam's " atro- 
cious crime " was, that he did not let some man from Massa- 
chusetts or New Hampshire have his " popularity." And 
yet, as we have said in the opening part of this volume, 
Putnam was not running round to look after his reputation. 
He was not courting popularity. He was prodigiously 
busy as a soldier and patriot, and he furnishes a noble illus- 
tration of that great saying of the Master, " Whosoever 
shall seek to save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall 
lose his life shall preserve it." General Dearborn calls this 
popularity of General Putnam " ephemeral," but he might 
with much more propriety have called his own influence 
to destroy it ephemeral, for it has already come to pass, 
that his natural successors in this work of disparagement 
no longer dare to make much use of anything which he 
ever said or wrote. 

But to return to the fact itself. We may consider that 
Putnam's friends and enemies agree in saying that he was 
the most popidar military officer about Boston, from April 
19th on to the arrival of Washington. No military move- 
ment of any great importance could take place in those 
weeks, which would be likely to leave him out. So far 
from this, no such movement, if an offensive one, would 
naturally occur in which he would not be found in close 
connection with it, if not at the head of it. All witnesses 
agree that General Ward had no genius or disposition for 
any bold adventures. His only " strength was to sit still." 
General Pomeroy had a spirit kindred to that of Putnam, 
but he chose rather to be an aider than an originator of 
offensive measures. Colonel Prescott was also restless 
under the long delays, but he was too inexperienced a man to 



124 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775. 

lead off in a daring military movement, though willing to 
play a part in it. Besides, his military rank naturally pre- 
cluded him from leadership in such enterprises. He was 
simply Colonel of a regiment, waiting to receive orders from 
his superiors. There is no doubt, we think, that General 
Putnam and he had talked over this Bunker Hill plan, and 
that Prescott was thoroughly sympathetic with him in it. 
Nor do we doubt that Putnam had asked and obtained leave 
of General Ward, that Prescott should be the man to go 
with that night detachment to fortify Bunker Hill, and so 
take the first steps which would be likely to bring on an 
engagement. But there was a larger and stronger man 
than Prescott behind that night movement. We shall here- 
after have occasion to notice more at length the fact, that 
Prescott's record as a military hero begins and ends here, 
and that record is very largely a production of modern 
times. It will be difficult to find his name in any promi- 
nent connection with the French War, or with his remain- 
ing years of service in the revolutionary army. 

Take any general history covering this period, like Ban- 
croft's, or Irving's " Life of Washington," and try this 
experiment. Following (as both these writers have) Mr. 
Frothingham as authority in relation to this battle, you will 
find a few' pages relating to the 17th of June, 1775, that 
bristle with Colonel Prescott's name and heroic acts. But 
you have heard little of him before, and you will hear just 
as little afterwards. 

That we may not seem to be dealing in assertions, we 
have culled from Bancroft's ten volumes every item we can 
discover relating to Colonel Prescott, aside from this bat- 
tle. The three first items speak of him before, and the 
three last after, the battle. 

Vol. VI, p. 447. — " With one voice they (the people of Pepper- 
ell) named Captain William Prescott to be the chief of their 



iEx. 57-] Leading Officers of this Army. 125 

Committee of Correspondence, and no braver heart beat in Mid- 
dlesex than his." 

Vol. VII, p. 99. — " In the coming storm they clustered round 
William Prescott of Pepperell, who stood firm as Monadnock, that 
rose in sight of his homestead." 

Vol. VII, p. 307. — "That morning (April 19th) William Pres- 
cott mustered his regiment, and though Pepperell was so remote 
that he could not be in season for the pursuit, he hastened down 
with five companies of guards." 

These are good words and full of promise. The last 
chapter of the seventh volume is devoted to Bunker Hill. 

In the eighth volume nothing whatever is said of Prescott 
except in the opening sentences, referring back to Bunker 
Hill. 

In the ninth volume there are three items. 

Vol, IX, p. 82. — "Two regiments, one of which was Prescott's, 
were all that could be spared to garrison Governor's Island," 

Vol. IX, p, 109. — "The dilatoriness of his antagonist [Lord 
Howe] left him [Washington] leisure to withdraw the garrison 
from Governor's Island, where Prescott ran almost as great risk of 
captivity as at Bunker Hill," 

Vol, IX, p, 175, — " Washington, who had foreseen this attempt 
to gain his rear, seasonably occupied the causeway and bridge 
which led from Frog's Neck by Hand's riflemen, a New York 
regmient, the regiment of Prescott of Pepperell, and an artillery 
company," 

The reader may think there was no particular reason for 
mentioning him by name in either of these three cases, 
except that the historian had a hero left on his hands, whom 
he was bound to nurse upon the slightest opportunity. 

It is not claimed, so far as we are aware, by any writer, 
that Thomas, or Spencer, or Heath, or Greene, originated 
this Bunker Hill movement. They were all able officers, 
and were doing their duty faithfully over at Roxbury and 



126 Life of Israel Putnam. [i775. 

Dorchester, By their position they were not drawn into 
this action. Nor is it claimed that it originated with any of 
the Colonels. Colonel Stark over at Medford was heroic 
and daring enough to have conceived it, but no one claims 
this honor for him, for he was not in such relations to Cam- 
bridge as to have been father of the scheme, though he bore 
a very important part in giving the movement the measure 
of success it achieved. We know that neither Ward nor 
Warren contrived the plan. It must naturally lie between 
Pomeroy and Putnam. And as General Pomeroy did not 
take command of the expedition, but insisted upon serving 
as a volunteer, it is made sufficiently plain that he was not 
the foremost man in the case, though he heartily approved 
it, and gave it all the assistance in his power. If we had 
no later historical evidences whatever, we should be driven 
to the conclusion that the man who had most to do in 
unlocking those Bunker Hill thunders was General Put- 
nam. 

Here were eight Generals connected with this army, of 
whom Pomeroy, Thomas, Spencer and Putnam had all seen 
long service in the former wars, most of them as Colonels. 
They were men of age and experience, and knew how to set 
an army in battle array. The idea that these men should 
all be passed by, and that the general oversight and con- 
trol of an enterprise so vastly important should be entrusted 
to any one of the Colonels about Cambridge, would be to 
the average soldier mind of that period a subject for deri- 
sive laughter. If it had been only some slight affair, some 
small military errand, not likely to involve any material 
consequences, then a Colonel or a Major or a Captain, with 
a detachment of men, might have been sent to attend to it, 
and to finish it. But this was a movement of such exceed- 
ing importance that General Ward would never give his 
assent to it till he was pushed forward by the Committee of 



JEt. 57.] Leading Officers of this Army. 127 

Safety, Even General Warren, young and heroic as he 
was, and full of the patriotic fire, stood trembling in the 
presence of such an enterprise, and never gave his public 
approval. 

And can we be made to believe that the chief directors 
of affairs in 1775, passing by these Generals of large experi- 
ence, gave the supreme oversight and command in that 
momentous expedition into the hands of a Colonel who 
never, so far as we can discover, had seen a field battle in 
his life, who probably never saw ,a man killed in action till 
that day ? Is this reasonable ? Is it according to the laws 
of common prudence and common sense ? Does any one 
know of any other important piece of military history which 
reads after this fashion ? 

The evidence, at the outset, is well nigh irresistible that 
Colonel Prescott was a subordinate officer in this enterprise. 
Instead of leaping to the conclusion that he was chief, the 
historical student ought to be pushed by the strongest doc- 
umentary evidence before he should ever accept a theory so 
utterly improbable. 

And in reference to this question of command, has there 
not been a needless cloud of mystery thrown about a very 
simple matter? Would it not be just as easy to raise 
doubts about Colonel Prescott's command, as about that of 
Putnam's.? Mr. Frothingham tells us (p. 122) that Prescott 
" had orders in writing from General Ward, to proceed that 
evening to Bunker Hill, and build fortifications to be 
planned by Colonel Richard Gridley, the chief engineer, 
and defend them until he should be relieved." No one 
need have the slightest objection to that order. It is no 
broader or stronger than it ought to be to cover the action 
of any subordinate officer sent on such an errand. He is 
to hold the command till " he should be relieved." That is 
about the way such military orders usually run. It con- 



128 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775- 

templates the possibility, at least, that he will be relieved of 
that command, and even the probability. But does any man 
of this living generation know certainly that those orders 
were written ? Colonel Prescott, in his letter to John 
Adams, says, "I received orders," but he does not say, 
"written orders." It was a night expedition, and a very 
secret one. It is hardly probable that they would wish to 
strike a light after passing Charlestown Neck, to read those 
orders, and if not, they might as well have been verbal as 
written. As we understand it, the claim that they were 
written is gratuitous.* 

But it is an old adage that "actions speak louder than 
words," and if we study the facts of the case, it is as plain 
that Putnam was acting under Ward's orders as that Pres- 
cott was. What does it mean that Putnam could not have 
his own regiment to go with him .-^ Does not that imply 
that Ward and Putnam were in conference on this subject, 
and that Putnam was acting under Ward's direction } What 
does it mean that he goes back to Ward's headquarters 
early next morning, and again during the forenoon .'' By 
these very circumstances and a great many others of like 
character, it is just as apparent that Putnam is a man 
clothed with authority from headquarters as that Prescott 

* " General Ward was the general-in-chief of ' the army of Massachusetts,' 
and the immediate commander of Colonel Prescott. His orderly book, there- 
fore, would have contained the order which he issued to the latter, had he 
really issued any ; but no such order appears there, and it is a fair inference, 
therefore, that none was issued in writing." — Mr. Dawson, in "Historical 
Magazine," June, iS68, p. 330. 

" On the contrary, no such orders were really issued, nor any other, except 
those reckless verbal directions to the Colonels of the fatigue parties." — Ibid, 

P- 323- 

In Sumner's " History of East Boston," p. 371, is a note in reference to the 
battle of Chelsea, in which the following statement is made : 

" There is no written order to this effect, which gives reason to believe that 
at, and previous to, the battle of Bunker Hill, the ' orders ' were given ver- 
bally and not in writing." 



Mr. 57.] Leading Officers of this Army. 129 

is. No written authority from Ward can be produced in 
either case. And when you add to all the little outstand- 
ing circumstances, the broad and open fact that Putnam 
was a Brigadier-General, and was pointed out in the sight 
of all men as the most natural military leader in those camps, 
a man toward whom all eyes turned to head such expeditions, 
we should say that the claim of Colonel William Prescott 
to the supreme command the next day, as set over against 
Putnam's, is as shadowy as the stuff that dreams are made 
of. We have not the slightest idea that Ward ever thought 
of him for one moment as the man to take the supreme 
command in that battle. 



CHAPTER VII. 

PREPARATIONS FOR THE BATTLE. 

Action of Committee of Safety. — Council of War. — Relations of Putnam 
and Prescott to the projected Movement. — Night Detachment. — Night 
Council. — Forces detailed to take Part in the Battle the next Day. — From 
Connecticut. — From New Hampshire. — From Massachusetts. 

THE last two chapters, though not designed to follow the 
history of affairs about Boston day by day, have so 
brought the general condition of things to light, that it is 
hardly necessary to go back and trace the succession of 
events with more particularity, until we reach the few days 
immediately preceding the battle. 

It was on the 15th of June that the Massachusetts Com- 
mittee of Safety, having become satisfied that the British 
were planning a movement, either to take possession of 
Charlestown or Dorchester Heights, recommended that 
decisive action should be taken. 

The step they advised was so important that we give the 
record of their action, in full, as follows : 

" Whereas, it appears of importance to the safety of this colony 
that possession of the hill called Bwiker's Hill in Charlestown be 
securely kept and defended, and also some one hill or hills on 
Dorchester Neck be likewise secured : therefore 

" Resolved, unanimously, that it be recommended to the coun- 
cil of war, that the above mentioned Bunker Hill be maintained 
by sufficient force being posted there ; and as the particular sit- 
uation of Dorchester Neck is unknown to this Committee, they 
desire that the council of war take and pursue such steps re- 



■^T. 57-] Preparations for the Battle. 131 

specting the same as to them shall appear to be for the security 
of this colony. 

" Ordered, That Colonel Benjamin White and Colonel Joseph 
Palmer be a committee to join with a committee from the coun- 
cil of war, to proceed to Roxbury camp, there to consult with the 
general officers on matters of importance, and to communicate 
to them a resolve this day passed in this committee respecting 
Bunker Hill, Charlestown and Dorchester Neck^ 

What was this Committee of Safety? and who constituted 
it ? It was first appointed in October, 1 774, by the Massachu- 
setts Provincial Assembly, and was then to consist of nine 
members, three from Boston (which seems to mean Boston 
and immediate vicinity), and six from the country towns. 
The nine first members were John Hancock, Joseph War- 
ren and Benjamin Church, as representing Boston, Ben- 
jamin White, Joseph Palmer, Morton Quincy, Richard Dev- 
ens, Abraham Watson and Colonel Azor Orne, as repre- 
senting the country towns. But before June 17th, 1775, 
the committee had been at different times enlarged, and 
the number was a variable one. At a meeting of the com- 
mittee April 17th, 1775, there were present John Hancock, 
J. Pigeon, Colonel Gardner, Colonel Heath, Colonel Joseph 
Palmer, Benjamin White, Mr. Watson, Mr. Devens and 
Colonel Orne — nine members ; but new names have come 
in, and Warren and Church are not present, though still 
members. At some of the meetings of the committee be- 
fore the time of the battle, a still larger number, ten or 
eleven, were present. 

This action of the committee was a recommendation to 
the council of war. The committee did not intend to over- 
ride this council, but to urge this matter upon their prompt 
attention. The council of war speedily met to consider 
this subject. Perhaps some one knows all the persons who 
took part in that council of war, June i6th. We do not 



132 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775. 

claim such knowledge, but we conclude it was composed 
only of general officers. Four persons are quite distinctly 
seen to have been present, viz., Ward, Warren, Putnam and 
Pomeroy. In this immediate connection Mr. Frothingham 
uses the name of Prescott. He says, " General Putnam, 
Colonel Prescott, and other veteran officers were strongly in 
favor of it," /. e., the proposed movement to take possession 
of Bunker Hill. Is there any evidence of Colonel Prescott's 
presence in that council .'' A few weeks later we have 
records of these councils of war, and they are composed 
only of the general officers. 

As we understand the matter, there is no fixed rule about 
a council of war. If a General is sent on an expedition 
away from the main body of the army, as the time draws 
near for action, he will naturally call his Colonels, or even 
officers of lower grade, into council. But in the main army 
a council of war is not likely to embrace any but the gen- 
eral officers. We can see with tolerable distinctness in that 
council of June i6th, the four men above mentioned, — the 
two former holding back, and the two latter urging matters 
forward. There were probably other Generals there, from 
the right wing of the army at Roxbury, — Thomas, or Spen- 
cer, or Heath, and perhaps all three of them. If Colonel 
Prescott was present, which we do not believe, he was there 
doubtless by special invitation, as one upon whom Putnam 
had already fixed his thoughts to bear an important part in 
the expedition. It is very certain that the Colonels gen- 
erally were not in that council, and the putting of Prescott 
there we take it to be of the imagination, and not by any 
historical authority. 

In the Committee of Safety this general measure had 
been urged imanimoiisly. In the fac simile transcript of 
a portion of that document, which may be found in Mr. 
Frothingham's "Siege of Boston" (facing p. 116), in Ben- 



^T. 57-] Preparations for the Battle. 133 

jamin White's handwriting, the word "unanimously" is 
above the hne, showing that the writer went back to put it 
in, as a word that ought not to be omitted. But the coun- 
cil of war was not unanimous, though the major vote was 
for action, and preparations were promptly made to put the 
decision of the council into execution. The meeting of the 
Committee of Safety as before stated, was on Thursday, the 
15 th, and by Friday night, the i6th, the council of war had 
uttered its voice. 

This council decided in favor of a plan, which in its gen- 
eral features was undoubtedly Putnam's, a plan which he 
had revolved in his mind, and talked about for days and 
weeks before. His aggressive policy had at last prevailed 
over Ward's do nothing policy.* 

The way in which Prescott's name has been in these 
modern times adroitly substituted for that of Putnam, may 
be conceived to be the following : This was the first great 
offensive movement of the war, and that night expedition 
on the 1 6th of June, in which Prescott had an important 
part, was in itself a romantic affair, and in after times 
strongly touched the imaginations of the people. Prescott's 
name therefore became linked indissolubly with that first 
bold act of aggression, and in later times it was compara- 
tively easy to shift his name along to the next day, and to 
pass him forward from a subordinate to a chief. But in 
reality, what Prescott did is no more than is likely to be 
done, in some form or other, in every offensive movement 
in any army. It usually happens that some leading steps 
are taken, some preliminary work is done, and almost 
invariably by a subordinate officer. Before the battle of 
Waterloo, because Napoleon sends Marshal Ney with 

* " If General Putnam is to be believed, he first proposed the taking pos- 
session of Bunker Hill, and was detached for the purpose of fortifying it ; and 

Colonel Prescott was placed under his orders It was for a second post 

of danger that the gallant Prescott was iaspiring." — Hon. John Lowell, 1818. 



134 Life of Israel Piitiiain. [1775. 

40,000 men to hold a pass, and if possible prevent the junc- 
tion of Bluchers army with the allied forces, does any reader 
ever become confused, and doubt who was commander-in- 
chief on the French side in that battle ? If one were to go 
over all the great battles of the world, he would find as a 
common and almost universal fact, that the movement of 
an army on the offensive, toward a battle, shows itself first 
in local and subordinate movements of the under ofBcers. 
And this was the movement of Colonel Prescott. Had the 
battle of Bunker Hill been the last instead of the first of 
the revolutionary period, what Prescott did would never 
have been set in such a conspicuous light. But it was 
something new and strange. That prayer on Cambridge 
Common, that silent march beneath the stars, that mid- 
night toil close to the ships of the enemy, when men spoke 
one to another in hushed voices, — all this played upon the 
thoughts and imaginations of men in a fresh and original 
way. But Prescott was simply an under officer sent that 
night to do a preliminary work. 

That this was his place and no other, that he had no 
special military reputation, either before that battle or after, 
evidences already adduced, and subsequent events, suffi- 
ciently show. 

As we draw near this battle, it is proper to say that we 
do not undertake to give a full history and description 
of all its minute parts and belongings. That has been often 
done, and it is not necessary that we should burden our- 
selves specially with this duty. We are writing the Life of 
General Putnam, and our purpose is to trace his footsteps 
as carefully as we can through these exciting scenes ; and 
in doing so the outlines of the contest itself will come into 
view with sufficient clearness. In reference to what may 
be called the primary facts of the battle, we give full honor 
to Mr. Frothingham's celebrated work, the " Siege of Bos- 



^T. 57-] Preparations for the Battle, 135 

ton." We still regard that as the most complete book we 
have, as to the details of the battle, the forces employed on 
both sides, and the various movements and fortunes of the 
day. But we are obliged to differ very widely from him in 
the interpretation of the facts, and in the conclusions drawn. 
In reference to the number of men that went from Cam- 
bridge on the night of June i6th, it will be noticed that 
different writers are quite at variance. Colonel John Trum- 
bull says 1,200 or 1,500, Stark says 1,500, Chester says 2,000, 
and others still 800, while some rate the number as high 
as 2,500. Prescott himself says r,ooo, and Daniel Putnam 
says 1,000. The last named gives the following very natu- 
ral reason why this was the number. He says, " It was 
finally agreed that 2,000 men should be employed in the 

undertaking The reason why the whole number 

contemplated for the expedition was not all ordered at 
once. General Putnam stated to be this. It was found that 
intrenching tools could not be had for more than about 1,000 
men, and he agreed to go on with that number over night, and 
return in the morning for refreshments and a reinforcement 
or relief for those who were expected to toil all the night." 
In the unpublished writings of Colonel John Trumbull,* the 
painter, now in the hands of Professor Benjamin Silliman of 
New Haven (to which we shall have occasion to refer by- 
and-by), we find the best statement of this night movement 
that we have anywhere seen. This body of men, according 
to him, was " commanded by General Putnam and Colonel 
Prescott." That we conceive to be the just and exact 
truth, putting the whole matter into its proper historical 
and military shape. The relations of those two men are 
precisely the same in a military point of view as though it 
had been General Pomeroy, or General Thomas and Colonel 
Prescott. In Chapter V. we have shown, we trust, with suf- 

* Appendix D. 



136 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775. 

ficient clearness, that State lines had nothing whatever to 
do with such matters. It might be Heath, or Spencer, or 
Thomas along with Prescott in that night movement, and 
it would have been all just the same. 

In each case one would have been a Brigadier-General 
and one a Colonel, and the latter would of course have had 
a subordinate command to the other. If Putnam was in 
command that night or the next day, who gave him the 
right to command ? is a question that has been many times 
asked with an air of triumph, with a tone of assurance, as 
if it were the end of all strife. There is a haughty assump- 
tion in the very asking of the question. It is based upon that 
pretentious claim which we have fully discussed in Chapter 
V. We can with equal propriety ask. If Colonel Prescott 
was in command even that night, to say nothing of next 
day, who gave him the right to command .-' Is there one 
particle of evidence bringing Prescott into direct personal 
relations to General Ward touching this movement, which 
does not exist still more clearly in the case of Putnam } If 
we will once go back of modern asseveration and reitera- 
tion and the talk about "written orders,"* when none can be 
shown, nor substantial proof given that any ever existed, — if 
we can once clear our ears of the perpetual ding-dong of 
modern days, we shall find, on a calm survey, far more evi- 
dence that Putnam came out of that place of majesty and 
power, Artemas Ward's headquarters, to enter upon that 
expedition, than that Prescott did.f 

* Let it be understood, however, that we have no objection to " written 
orders," if any can be produced, or if evidence can be shown that such orders 
in writing ever existed. They would cover only a subordinate command. No 
one will dare pretend that Prescott ever received " written orders" authorizing 
him, a Colonel, to take supreme command the next day, against general 
officers who might be upon ttiat field. 

t We are not sure but the facts concerning Colonel Prescott, in connection 
with this battle, might be summed up in the following proposition, viz., That 
Prescott had no orders written or verbal, directly from Ward ; that this expe- 



^T. 57-] Preparations for the Battle. 137 

If Warren had chosen to take the command next day, 
when it was offered to him, would he have been asked who 
gave him the right to command ? Yet he would not tech- 
nically have been nearly so well entitled to that command 
as Putnam, for he had not been commissioned. But would 
he have been obliged to produce from his pocket a written 
order to show Prescott or any body else that Ward had sent 
him there, before he could have assumed command ? War- 
ren, when he came to that field, did not probably come from 
Ward's headquarters. General Ward did not even know of 
his going, so far as appears. He had not expected to go. 
And yet he might have commanded, and all parties would 
have acquiesced. 

If General Putnam had been asked that night or the next 
day, by what right he commanded, and in whose name, 
setting aside technics, he might have answered with less 
impiety and with far more propriety than did a son of Con- 
necticut, Ethan Allen, six weeks before, at Ticonderoga, 
" In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental 
Congress," for the Lord had evidently given him the spirit 
and power to command, as he gave to Joshua of old ; and as 
for the Continental Congress, though Putnam knew it not, 
it was hastening to clothe him with ample authority, and 
forty-eight hours later he was one of the four Major-Gen- 
erals of the Continental army. 

These two men, Putnam and Prescott, are to be seen on 
that night of June i6th, under the sheltering darkness, 
going on that momentous errand to Bunker Hill. 

dition being known and publicly recognized as of Putnam's devising, Ward 
gave into his hands the management of it on the field, and Prescott was the 
Colonel that Putnam chose as his principal subordinate officer, whose move- 
ments he directed. We do not recall any sure and well-established historical 
fact that is inconsistent with this theory, and it is certainly far more defensi- 
ble than the statement that Prescott's movements were directed by the written 
orders of Ward. 



138 Life of Israel Putnam. [i77S- 

Arrived at that hill, there was a long parley. General 
Pomeroy was probably there, Colonel Gridley was there, 
Colonel Bridge was there, and Putnam and Prescott were 
there. These, at least, can be distinguished through the 
shadows. We notice that Mr. Frothingham, in his " Siege 
of Boston " (p. 123), says, " The order was explicit as to Bun- 
ker Hill, and yet a position nearer Boston, now known as 
Breed's Hill, seemed better adapted to the objects of the 
expedition, and better suited the daring spirit of the offi- 
cers." But Colonel Prescott, in his letter to John Adams, 
says it was Breed's Hill to which he was sent. " On the 
1 6th of June I received orders to march to Breed's Hill 
in Charlestown." We have no disposition whatever to rely 
unduly upon this authority, for we shall have occasion here- 
after to comment freely upon this letter, but let it be borne 
in mind that Prescott says " Breed's Hill." * Then as to 
that " daring spirit of the officers." We think we discover 
in these words an insinuation against General Putnam, as 
if he were a rash man and would disobey orders. 

There is no one thing about this battle concerning which 
there has been more loose and rambling speculation than 
this night council on the Charlestown heights. No man 
can unveil the secrets of that conference. Who it was that 
first proposed to build the redoubt on Breed's Hill cannot be 
told. There was evidently a difference of opinion, causing 
quite a long delay, when time was very precious. The ques- 
tion was not decided so that the men could begin their work 

♦ We notice that Mr. Frothingham tries to help Colonel Prescott out, in 
his saying " Breed's Hill," by the suggestion that there was no place in 
Charlestown then called Breed's Hill, and that he inadvertently used the name 
given after the battle. But this letter of Colonel Prescott's was not written 
till the 25th of August following, and we should conclude by that time that 
the supposed commander-in-chief would have learned the difference between 
Breed's Hill and Bunker Hill, for there certainly was a place called Bunker 
Hill long before that battle. We prefer that Colonel Prescott should be left 
to tell his own story. 



•^T. 57-] Preparations for the Battle. 139 

until nearly twelve o'clock. We have the impression that 
military engineers in our own day, looking over the ground, 
are generally agreed that Breed's Hill was the best place for 
the main redoubt. Many writers have sagaciously shown 
the utter folly of building such works anywhere upon that 
peninsula, because the British could so easily bring their 
ships of war up the Charles and Mystic rivers, and shell 
them out or cut them off, without losing a man. That kind 
of wisdom comes altogether too late for practical use. We 
set the actual results over against these theories and possi- 
bilities and probabilities, and can reasonably ask if some- 
body else had not thought of all those things before. A 
point so easy to be thought of by a modern man, had proba- 
bly received the attention of the man who planned this 
expedition. Putnam had fought alongside of Englishmen 
for ten years, and he knew well enough that English pluck 
would say, " Those rustics have thrown down the gauntlet, 
and for us not to take it up promptly and boldly, but to 
fight them only with our ships at a safe distance, would be 
a kind of sneaking and cowardly way of doing the business. 
We will teach them a lesson on the spot." 

But as to the position of those earthworks, it seems as 
rational a supposition as any that can be made, that Colonel 
Gridley's judgment was followed. He was the engineer, 
and deference would naturally be paid to his opinion. 
Whether Putnam coincided with that opinion can never be 
accurately told. In reference to this point, certain writers 
are in the most curious antagonism with themselves. For 
the purpose of showing Putnam a rash, headlong man, full 
of bluster and noise, they make him in that night-work pre- 
paratory to the battle override everybody else, and have 
his own way, in spite of all opposition. He breaks through 
orders from headquarters and majorities on the spot. But 
the next day he has no proper command at all, and is only 



140 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775- 

a kind of volunteer assistant of Colonel Prescott. It would 
have been well for any such writer to have followed the 
wise precaution of John Gilpin, and 

" . . . . hung a bottle on each side 
To make his balance true." 

And there is still another thing which seems to have been 
strangely overlooked or perverted. It may be that Putnam 
thought it best, on the whole, that the chief earthworks 
should be at Breed's Hill, though we do not know that he 
thought so. But one thing we do know, that he wanted to 
fortify Bunker Hill also. We know this of him, and we do 
not know it of any other one who took part in that night 
council. 

If Mr. Frothingham is sure that the order said Bunker 
Hill, we are equally sure that Putnam wanted to fortify 
that hill, and so obey orders. The facts of the next day 
seem to show conclusively that he could not rest until in- 
trenchments were begun on Bunker Hill. Dr. George E. 
EUis, in his "History of the Battle," etc., pubhshed in 1875, 
confirms this view of Putnam's wishes and plans, in lan- 
guage which will show at once that he is not a friend to 
him. The passage may be found on p. 49. " So com- 
pletely was he [Putnam] identified with the consuming zeal 
for fortifying the higher hill in the rear [Bunker Hill], that 
the traditionary rehearsals from the life of some survivors 
represented him as on horseback, buried under and sur- 
rounded by heaps of intrenching tools, enough for a cart 
load." By the testimony of one of his most vigorous oppo- 
sers, therefore, Putnam wanted to fortify Bunker Hill, and 
Mr. Frothingham says that was the hill they were ordered 
to fortify. 

And if Putnam had had his own Connecticut regiment 
on the ground that night or early in the morning, composed 



^T. 57.] Preparations for the Battle. 141 

of men who would obey military orders without being con- 
stantly watched, that second line of defense would have 
been completely finished long before the British attack at 
3 o'clock the next afternoon. And instead of seeing a rash 
and headlong man in all this, we see only a man who, though 
bold in action, was careful and judicious ; and if he had 
had the cordial co-operation of General Ward and the 
Massachusetts regiments, he would completely have saved 
the day (supposing that the British should have pursued 
the same essential mode of attack they did). From the 
actual result secured, as the case was, we have no reason- 
able doubt, if Putnam could have had the whole of his own 
regiment, with Chester's company and the two regiments 
from New Hampshire, and had them in the morning, he 
would have carried that battle to a perfectly triumphant 
conclusion. He would then have had almost exactly 2,000 
men, and they would have been all he needed. 

But to return to this night council. Mr. Frothingham 
says (p. 123), that "The veteran Colonel Gridley and two 
Generals, one of whom was General Putnam, took part in 
it." Perhaps no one absolutely knows who that other Gen- 
eral was, but there is no real doubt it was General Poraeroy. 

After the parley was ended, and the men were at work^ 
it being now near midnight, Mr. Frothingham says, " Gen- 
eral Putnam .... returned to Cambridge." It is implied, 
of course, in this sentence, that Putnam returned to Cam- 
bridge at midnight, and he helps the reader to have the 
passing thought that other men are awake and hard at 
work, but he has gone to take his rest. Mr. Frothingham 
gives no sufficient authority for this, and has he any } It 
is in direct contradiction to Daniel Putnam's circumstantial 
account of what was passing in those exciting hours. Anx- 
ious about his father, Daniel Putnam tells us that early on 
the morning of the 17th, he hastened to Putnam's regiment 



142 Life of Israel Putnam. [i77S- 

and asked Major Durkee (the same man that escorted Mr. 
Jared Ingersoll into Wethersfield) where his father was. 
He pointed with his sword to Charlestown, and confirmed 
the gesture with words. Then he ran to Putnam's head- 
quarters and found the Adjutant of the regiment, and he 
answered that his father " had been there but for a moment, 
and had returned to Charlestown as soon as the firing 
began." Then he went to what we now call Old Cam- 
bridge to General Ward's headquarters. General Ward 
was out, but he found his secretary, Joseph Ward. His 
answer was, "Your father was here before dawn of day this 
morning, but has gone back to Charlestown." By this 
explicit and most circumstantial testimony we conclude 
that Putnam remained at Charlestown till early dawn, near 
the time that the British ships in the harbor made their 
first discovery of the redoubt. Then he went back to 
Cambridge for the reinforcements and the refreshments ; 
but the firing from the ships hastened his return, and he 
only left directions there for that to be done, which he was 
intending personally to superintend and see done. 

In the enumeration of the officers and soldiers of the 
American army, who were detailed to take part in the 
eventful struggle of the 17th of June, we will begin with 
Connecticut, whose record in this respect is very plain and 
simple. Putnam was sorely disappointed that he could not 
move his own regiment to the scene of action. We are 
not aware that any writer ever doubted that he wished 
those men to be there, longed for their presence, as men 
whom he knew would obey his orders. The simple fact that 
this regiment was only represented by two companies, and 
these obtained after earnest solicitation, is one of the most 
vital and satisfactory proofs that Putnam was acting under 
General Ward's orders that day, and that there was not 
"an army of Connecticut" separate and distinct from "an 



JEt. 57.] Preparations for the Battle. 143 

army of Massachusetts," but that both of them were only 
parts of one " American army," in which General Ward was 
acknowledged and treated as commander-in-chief. 

Two hundred men from the Connecticut forces went on 
to the ground with Prescott's detachment that night. We 
need not suppose that two companies were taken entire, 
though in the constitution of a Connecticut regiment, two 
would make two hundred men. But the detachment for 
that night's service was made up by drafts from four compa- 
nies of Putnam's regiment, and the men were placed under 
the subordinate command of the brave Captain Knowlton. 
Besides Putnam's full regiment, there were two other com- 
panies of Connecticut troops at Cambridge, which were 
called independent. And yet they were not what we now 
should understand by an " independent company," They 
were simply detached and away from their own regiments. 
Captain Chester's company of one hundred men belonged 
to General Spencer's regiment over at Roxbury. Captain 
Coit's company belonged to Colonel Parsons' regiment (the 
sixth Connecticut), which (except this company) was at New 
London, Connecticut. In making up this detachment, a 
part of Chester's company was certainly taken. We have 
not been able fully to satisfy ourselves whether a draft was 
made from Coit's company for that night detachment, or 
whether his company went on the next day, just before 
the close of the battle. It is evident that Coit's company, 
in whole or part, participated in the battle, and we believe, 
from all we can discover, that a draft was made from it 
for the original two hundred. There is a kind of by-play 
between the numbers one hundred and twenty and two 
hundred for the Connecticut troops often met with in dif- 
ferent accounts of the battle. This fact is probably to be 
explained as follows : Lieutenant (afterwards Colonel) 
Thomas Grosvenor, in his letter to Daniel Putnam, in 1818, 



144 ^^f^ ^f I^'i'ci-^l PuUiam. [1775. 

says, " A detachment of four Lieutenants (of which I was 
one) and one hundred and twenty men, selected the previ- 
ous day from General Putnam's regiment," etc. We know 
these four Lieutenants, and can easily fix the four compa- 
panies. Thirty men were probably taken from each com- 
pany, for Mr. Grosvenor speaks of his own immediate com- 
mand as consisting gf " thirty men and one subaltern." 
From Putnam's regiment proper, therefore, one hundred 
and twenty men were taken, and the drafts from Chester's 
and Coit's companies probably made up the two hundred. 
Colonel Prescott says two hundred, and Daniel Putnam 
says two hundred, and we rest quite securely upon those 
figures. 

The next day, just as the battle was beginning. General 
Putnam sent a hasty summons by his son. Captain Israel 
Putnam, for the rest of Chester's company to come (and 
some include Coit's company in this call) ; but whoever 
went in answer to that call could only reach the field near 
the close of the battle. Captain Chester tells us distinctly 
that, making all haste, he was able to reach the front only 
a few moments before the battle was ended. 

This Chester's company, it will be remembered, was the 
one that did escort duty when Putnam and Warren went to 
exchange those prisoners. It was a company fit for even 
British disciplinarians to see. Hollister in his history 
(Vol. II. p. 180), after enumerating some of the notable per- 
sons and military bodies from Connecticut, says, "Ches- 
ter's company was by far the most accomplished body of 
men in the whole American army." 

Adding these to those who went the night before, we con- 
clude that Connecticut may have had two hundred and sev- 
enty-five or three hundred men in the battle ; only it must 
be remembered, as already suggested, that whatever the 
number of the reinforcement, the men connected with it 



•^T. 57.] Preparations for the Battle. 145 

were in the battle but a few moments. Through the two 
first repulses Connecticut had but two hundred men there. 

Fortunately we have the means of tracing the New 
Hampshire men almost as closely as the Connecticut. 
We say, fortunately, for this point has been somewhat in 
dispute. The recently published seventh volume of the 
" New Hampshire Provincial Papers," gives us data whereby 
the case can be narrowed down very closely to the actual 
facts. We shall see in the sequel what many of the New 
Hampshire men have for years claimed, that the battle of 
Bunker Hill was very largely fought by her men. Let us 
attend carefully to the records gathered from the volume 
mentioned. 

On the 14th of June, 1775, only three days before the 
battle, we have an exact return of Colonel James Reed's 
New Hampshire regiment. There were ten companies, 
and the regiment was reported by Stephen Peabody, Adju- 
tant, under two heads, " effective men for duty," and " sick, 
absent, unfit and on command." Under the first head are 
returned four hundred and ninety men. Under the second 
head the number is one hundred and forty-nine, making the 
whole regiment six hundred and thirty-seven. From returns 
after the battle, we find that of these ten companies, Cap- 
tain John Marcy's (which in the above enumeration has 
forty-eight " effective men") was not in the battle, and was 
probably left to guard the camp. Taking these out, we 
conclude that Colonel Reed led four hundred and forty-two 
men to Bunker Hill. We do not find any such exact enu- 
meration of Colonel Stark's regiment ; but he too led nine 
companies to battle, leaving one, probably, to guard the 
camp, and as his regiment was the older, and his name was 
immensely popular, it was doubtless not less in number than 
Reed's. Even as early as May i8th. Stark had five hun- 
dred and eighty-four under his command. We judge it 
10 



146 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775. 

safe to say that Stark and Reed brought nine hundred men 
to Bunker Hill. 

By Colonel Stark's letter, written after the battle (June 
19th), it appears that he first sent forward two hundred 
men under Lieutenant-Colonel Wyman. " About 2 o'clock 
in the afternoon express orders came for the whole of my 
regiment." So says Colonel Stark, and he obeyed that 
order, only, as we suppose, he left one company to guard 
the camp. He led nine companies into the battle. We 
know this by the following documentary evidence. In this 
seventh volume, beginning at page 586, and onward for sev- 
eral pages, we have a list of the New Hampshire men in 
this battle, who were afterwards reimbursed for their losses 
on that day.* In this enumeration nine companies are 
brought to light in each regiment, and it is not likely that 
there should be just one company in each regiment that 
lost nothing. We regard this important document as 
settling the question, and showing conclusively enough that 
Colonels Stark and Reed each led nine companies of their 
respective regiments to the battle. In some of these com- 
panies the losses of property for which the men were paid 
were few. In one of Stark's only two men were remuner- 
ated, in another only seven ; but generally the number was 
much larger. The whole number remunerated in the two 
regiments was four hundred and fifty-two ; and this would 

* The day was very hot, and before these troops went into battle they seem 
to have deposited some of their luggage on the ground back of them, the 
northerly slope of Bunker Hill. If everybody on that field had done his duty 
as well as they, this luggage would have been taken again, each man taking 
his own, as they went off. But when that break came at the redoubt, it 
came suddenly, and amid the dust and smoke that enveloped the scene, 
these New Hampshire men that were farthest away did not know what had 
happened till some few minutes afterwards, when they found that the British 
had broken through the lines, and they were flanked. So they had to beat a 
hasty retreat. Hence these losses. 



iET. 57.] Preparations for the Battle. 147 

confirm, in a general way, the conclusion already reached, 
that New Hampshire had as many as nine hundred men at 
Bunker Hill under Stark and Reed. (These are the " party 
of Hampshire," that Prescott casually mentions as a quite 
unimportant matter in his letter to John Adams.) 

But besides these, New Hampshire had other men in the 
battle. Captain Dow's company in Prescott's own regi- 
ment were from Hollis, New Hampshire, and twenty-eight 
men of this company were also reimbursed for losses by the 
New Hampshire generosity, notwithstanding they were en- 
rolled and serving in a Massachusetts regiment. By the 
best judgment we can form, we set Captain Dow's com- 
pany in Prescott's regiment at fifty men. But Prescott had 
New Hampshire men (scattering cases) in his other com- 
panies. As he lived at Pepperell, on the borders of New 
Hampshire, men from over the line came and joined the 
companies enlisting for his regiment. We have tried faith- 
fully to find the part which New Hampshire played in this 
battle, and after sifting the evidence carefully, we are satis- 
fied that she had not less than nine hundred and sixty men 
on that field. Some would place the number higher. What 
is of vastly greater importance, they were men who knew 
how to find their way to the front, and did not run away. 
They fought it out to the last moment. 

In our further references to the New Hampshire men, 
we shall not include Captain Dow's company, as that was 
in a Massachusetts regiment, and will have its place and 
its reckoning there. Only we will not forget the fact that 
about sixty (it may be more) of Prescott's men were from 
New Hampshire. But we call the others nine hundred, 
which is probably a close approximation to the real truth, 
and the balance may be one way or the other. 

Besides these, that fragment of a regiment (Sargeant's, 
with only four companies in the Massachusetts service, 



148 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775- 

but recruited in New Hampshire, and which had been 
under General Putnam's command at the Inman farm) 
begged to be allowed to go into the battle, but General 
Ward would not give his consent. The Committee of 
Safety a few days before had advised the Massachusetts 
Congress that this regiment was not likely to be full, and 
that it be disbanded. That work had not yet been done.* 
Herein may be found some source of confusion among 
New Hampshire writers. Stark had thirteen companies 
at Medf ord ; f and this may have occasioned the supposi- 
tion, sometimes made, that these New Hampshire compa- 
nies of Sargeant's had gone over to the Medford camp. 
But they were still at Cambridgeport when the battle of 
Bunker Hill was fought, making a part of General Ward's 
front body guard. Patterson's Massachusetts regiment, 
which had been also under General Putnam's command, 
as a part of this front guard, though more to the north, 
toward Lechmere Point, did not have any part in the battle. 
We give therefore for Connecticut two hundred (with an 
uncertain number in the reinforcement, but too late for 
service), and for New Hampshire nine hundred. 

And now we have to make a very miscellaneous reckon- 
ing for Massachusetts. A standard Massachusetts regi- 
ment, when full, was at that time five hundred and ninety- 
eight men ; but none of her regiments were full. She had 

* A few months later, this Colonel Paul Dudley Sargeant is found on the 
muster-rolls at the head of a full regiment. 

t This we learn from General Folsom's letter, in the " New Hampshire 
Provincial Papers," Vol VII. p. 529, written June 23d, six days after the bat- 
tle. There is a difficulty between Folsom and Stark, but that is of no con- 
sequence now. General Folsom says, " I have since made enquiry and find 
that he [Stark] would not be able to lead off many more than the super- 
numerors [«V] of his regiment, it still consisting of thirteen companys." 
But in the battle, Stark probably went with only his own proper regiment, 
leaving one company, as before stated, to keep guard, and these three com- 
panies were treated as the nucleus of another regiment. 



•^T, 57.] Preparations for the Battle. 149 

many more regiments than any other colony, and a much 
larger number of men. There were fifteen Massachusetts 
regiments in Cambridge and vicinity, around the centre of 
the American army, besides Gridley's regiment of artillery. 
Mr. Frothingham estimates that these sixteen regiments 
(including Gridley's) had at that time six thousand and 
sixty-three men, besides the accessories in the shape of 
drummers, etc., which would make one thousand five hun- 
dred and eighty-one more, in all, seven thousand six hun- 
dred and forty-four, and Mr. Frothingham is very exact and 
careful in such computations. Massachusetts had also nine 
regiments in the right wing under Thomas, about Roxbury 
and Dorchester. But neither these nor General Spencer's 
men, that were at Roxbury, nor General Greene's men, took 
any part in the battle. 

Of the Massachusetts men Prescott led eight hundred 
of them on to the ground on the night of June i6th. 
These were taken from his own regiment, from Colonel 
Frye's and Colonel Bridge's. It is generally estimated that 
he had three hundred from his own, which would leave five 
hundred, or two hundred and fifty apiece, to come from the 
other two. But the next day, just before the battle and in the 
midst of the battle, there were sent forward as reinforce- 
ments portions of ten other regiments. Little's, Gerrish's, 
Doolittle's, Gardner's, Ward's, Nixon's, Whitcomb's, Mans- 
field's, Woodbridge's, and Scammons's, besides Gridley's 
artillery. In some cases the numbers were comparatively 
few, perhaps one, two, or three companies. In other cases 
the regiments went with a good degree of fulness. We are 
very sure we shall not overstate the case if we say that one 
hundred and forty men, on the average, went or started to go 
from each of these ten regiments, which, added to the eight 
hundred that marched with Prescott the night before, would 
make two thousand and two hundred men that Massachusetts 



150 Life of Israel Putnam. [i775- 

undertook in some sort to contribute to the active forces of 
that day. But the manner of this contribution, as we shall 
see, greatly impaired, yea, almost destroyed its value. The 
facts which go to show this will come to light in the next 
chapter. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE FORENOON OF JUNE SEVENTEENTH. 

Putnam's Desire to fortify Bunker Hill. — Ward does not send the promised 
Reinforcements. — Scene at the Redoubt, and its Moral. — Construction of 
the Fence Line. — Arrival of two hundred New Hampshire Men. — Stark's 
and Reed's Regiments. — Coming of Warren upon the Field. — Lateness 
of the Massachusetts Reinforcements. 

LET it be understood that we use the word forenoon in 
this chapter, for that part of the day which passed be- 
fore the action began. 

It is plain, as already shown from a great variety of wit- 
nesses, friendly and unfriendly to General Putnam, that he 
was possessed with a strong desire to throw a line of 
entrenchments across Bunker Hill, at some distance back 
from the actual line where the battle was fought ; and with- 
out doubt he intended to man them, before the battle begun, 
with a sufficient force of men. It is not likely that the 
fence arrangement was in his early morning thoughts at 
all — that this was an after plan — a make-shift for some- 
thing better. Mr.T)rake says that " The mistake of the day 
appears to have been the omission to throw up some 
defences on Bunker Hill. Putnam, who seems to have 
appreciated the importance of a supporting line to raw 
militia, exerted himself to little purpose for this end." 

Dr. Ellis says (p. 24), " Probably if both summits could 
have been simultaneously intrenched and defended by 
troops well supplied with ammunition and artillery, the 
provincials might have maintained their ground." 

Whose " mistake " was it that Bunker Hill was not in- 

151 



152 Life of Israel Putnam. [i77S- 

trenched ? We wish to show under what conditions Gen- 
eral Putnam wrought that forenoon to get this work done 
He intended, doubtless, to have that second line of fortifi- 
cations all completed in the early morning hours. If the 
second detachment of one thousand men, agreed upon the 
day before, could have been brought on to the ground in 
the cool of that summer day, fresh from the rest of the 
night, and animated by the sight of what their brethren 
had done while they were permitted to sleep, it would not 
have been a long task to throw that girdle of intrench- 
ments across the peninsula, narrow as it there is and taper- 
ing towards the neck. Was it an easy thing for such a 
man as General Putnam, with his strong will and prodigious 
powers of execution, to wait, and look, and wait, hour after 
hour, when he knew how precious every moment was ? 
Was it a remarkable fact that he should lose patience and 
grow so nervous that he could hardly contain himself, and 
that he should go dashing again across that neck, without 
ever stopping to think whether the British had a dozen bat- 
teries throwing chain-shot at him, or none at all ? 

One writer says, " His furious ardor may or may not 
have needed the control of a cool deliberating judgment, 
and of that prime essential of the soldier which is called 
' conduct.' His courage was unquestionable. He is here 
fairly presented by the writer, according *as a careful exami- 
nation of authorities, and a review of widely different esti- 
mates and judgments of him by others, assign to him his 
share in inspiriting a patriotic enterprise." 

And on the same page as the above, it is said, " Putnam 
pleaded and cursed, a misuse of emphasis for which he 
afterwards humbled himself before his Puritan church." 
Some efforts have been made to discover whether, as a mat- 
ter of fact, the Brooklyn church ever disciplined him for 
swearing. We have not been able to find any evidence of 



JET.S7'] The Forenoon of June Seventeenth. 153 

it, but rather evidence to the contrary. But if they did, it 
shows us one or two things not unworthy of our notice. 
It shows us a little New England country church sturdily 
maintaining its rules of discipline without " respect of per- 
sons." It was something for such a church to bring to its 
bar of censure a Major-General of the Continental army. 
On the other hand, it shows us a man of the very strongest 
will, high in ofHce and popularity, bowing before that plain 
and humble tribunal, and confessing his fault. We should 
want no better evidence that General Putnam was a hum- 
ble-hearted. Christian man. It is an example which a Chris- 
tian minister ought naturally enough to respect.* 

But to be true and exact about this, it must be said that 
one to whom application was made for information, and 
who has access to the sources of information, frankly an- 
swered in substance that Putnam swore that day without 
much doubt, but he did not find evidence that the church 
ever disciplined him for it. They regarded it probably as 
a case of extreme provocation, where Uncle Toby's record- 
ing angel would be likely to wipe the record out if it were 
written against his name, and so it was not entered. 

* That church certdnly, according to the writer quoted, came off better 
than another country church in Connecticut, of which the following story is 
told : When General William Eaton, a native of Woodstock, Connecticut, 
but living in Brimfield, Massachusetts, came back to his native country in 
1805, after successfully fighting the Algerine pirates, he was making his way 
as fast as he could to his home in Brimfield. He left Hartford, Connecticut, 
on horseback, Sunday morning, wrapped in a cloak that concealed his uniform, 
and was jogging on his way, when he reached Vernon, Connecticut, while the 
people were standing about the meeting-house, at the noon intermission. 
They, seeing a stranger journeying on the road, thought it their duty to stop 
him. Some of the official men went out to the road, and inquired the occa- 
sion of his travelling on the Sabbath. Up to that moment, the General 
apparently had not stopped to inquire whether it was Sunday, or some other 
day. It required a moment to enable him to take in the situation. Then he 
threw open his cloak, and began to draw his sword from the scabbard, where- 
upon they went back to the meeting-house, and he on his journey. 



154 Life of Israel Putnam. [i775- 

We shall all have to confess probably that General Put- 
nam had not a very quiet temperament during that summer 
forenoon. His 

" . . . . manners had not that repose 
That marks the caste of Vere de Vere." 

General Ward had what might be called " conduct " in 
an eminent degree, and in a military view, very bad conduct. 
His failure to carry out the plan and keep his own promises 
was enough to disgust and infuriate any man who was com- 
petent to be left in charge of so important an enterprise. 
And yet these immense activities of his, on this wearisome 
summer day, to save the expedition from utter failure, are 
treated as though he were an amateur rider, racing here and 
there to show his horsemanship, and work off his superflu- 
ous physical energies. A man approaching threescore 
years, who had known little sleep for thirty hours, and was 
to know little for thirty hours to come, — left in this criti- 
cal period by his military superior, who had become half 
frightened to death out at Cambridge at the noise of the 
cannon, and had utterly failed to keep his promises, — seems 
deserving of sympathy rather than ridicule. 

This prodigious activity with which some writers choose 
to credit General Putnam, and at the same time turn it into 
ridicule, or deny him all the honors belonging to it, reminds 
one of an old and simple story that used to be told. A 
farmer who had several sons went from home one day, and 
left the boys to hoe a field of corn. When he came back 
he found much bad hoeing, but the other boys laid it all to 
John. Wherever the work was faulty, " John did it." " You 
rogues," said the old man, " it seems that John did it all, 
and I am going to give the rest of you a whipping ! " 

One may read page after page in many recent books and 
pamphlets, in which the confusions and disorders around 



^T. 57-] The Forenoon of June Seventeenth. 155 

that hill are somehow allowed to rest on Putnam's shoul- 
ders, even though these writers at the same time imply that 
he was not the commander, and had no right to command. 
This is the old story of Pharaoh over again, who would 
have his " tale of brick," straw or no straw. 

No careful reader of modern Bunker Hill literature can 
have failed to notice this quiet and adroit way of shifting 
General Ward's delinquencies, and all the disorders that 
came in consequence, over on to General Putnam. This 
is a far heavier load than that with which Doctor Ellis has 
weighed him down, in his graphic picture of those intrench- 
ing tools. Putnam, with his old white horse, could bear that 
burden very comfortably. But to charge General Ward 
and his doings to Putnam, is the height of cruelty. The 
old hero would rather have gone through again the Indian 
tortures he endured in the French War, than to bear that 
imputation. We shall see, as we go on, how General Ward 
kept his promises and furnished his reinforcements. 

The hours passed away, while no reinforcements came. 
And now comes a little episode of that forenoon which we 
desire to open up to view until we see and understand it. 
We copy a passage from the " Siege of Boston " (pp. 1 29- 
30) which will bring the matters directly before us. " About 
1 1 o'clock, the men had mostly ceased labor on the works ; 
the intrenching tools had been piled in the rear, and all 
were anxiously awaiting the arrival of refreshments and 
reinforcements. No works, however, had been commenced 
on Bunker Hill, regarded as of great importance in case of 
a retreat. General Putnam, who was .on his way to the 
heights when Major Brooks was going to Cambridge, rode 
on horseback to the redoubt, ' and told Colonel Prescott,' as 
General Heath first relates the circumstance, 'that the 
intrenching tools must be sent off, Or they would be lost.' 
The Colonel replied, ' that if he sent any of the men away 



156 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775 

with the tools not one of them would return.' To this the 
General answered, ' They shall every man return.' A large 
party was then sent off with the tools, and not one of them 
returned. In this instance the Colonel was the best judge 
of human nature." 

We have read this passage many times, and have often 
thought we could draw some more useful and legitimate 
inferences from it than the very tame one which General 
Heath drew. 

(i) It shows us that General Putnam on this field was 
clearly the military superior of Colonel Prescott. He was 
the man to command what should be done with those tools, 
and Prescott was the man to obey. 

(2) It shows us that Colonel Prescott had already been 
losing his men, or he would not so speedily have jumped 
to the conclusion that these soldiers would run away if 
they were once allowed to go out of his sight. This con- 
firms his own statement in general, in his letter to John 
Adams. 

(3) It shows us that Putnam, with his generous nature, 
attributed to those soldiers the same faithfulness and spirit 
of obedience that he would to his own. He knew that the 
men of his regiment would not run away from their post 

■ of duty the moment his eye was off them. Those two 
hundred men that came from his own command were not 
eye-servants. They never left that field, not a man of 
them, till the British broke through at the redoubt. Gen- 
eral Putnam, full of heroic devotion to the cause that 
brought them on to that field, though he was from another 
colony, willing to endure labor and danger and heat for 
the general good, really thought and believed that those 
Massachusetts men on their own soil felt as he did and 
would endure to, the end. 

(4) It is rather evident from this incident that those 



■^T. 57-] The Forenoon of June Seventeenth. 157 

two hundred Connecticut men were not at that time at the 
redoubt. If they had been there, Putnam would have been 
likely (especially after Prescott's expression of his want of 
confidence in his own men) to have told them to convey the 
tools to Bunker Hill, Indeed, had they been there, he 
would probably have done so in any event. As the time 
had not yet come for Prescott to send these Connecticut 
men to support the artillery, as he says he afterwards did 
(that event could not happen until the British landed), one 
can discover some evidence here that they were busy in the 
construction of that fence. Probably they had been already 
detailed by Putnam for that duty. They had wrought all 
night and through the morning hours as the others had 
done. Now the others were resting, and the Connecticut 
men were probably at work to construct that extemporized 
line, which Putnam felt it was time to begin, in the absence 
of the promised reinforcements. One need not be dog- 
matic about this opinion, but it looks very much like the 
truth. Still Putnam wanted those tools up at Bunker Hill, 
for he kept hoping that General Ward would get over 
his great apprehensions, and find time to send along some 
of those men he had promised. 

(5) If General Heath had repeated this story with its 
momentous inference to General Putnam himself, we can 
imagine that the old hero would have replied somewhat as 
follows : " When I made that promise I thought those men 
were soldiers, attached to Colonel Prescott, the commander 
at the redoubt ; that out of their personal devotion to him 
they would return and see him through this business. I 
did not keep my eye on them very closely. I had a great 
many cares on my mind, and lo ! ' while thy servant was 
busy here and there, they were gone.' But pray do not be 
so cruel as to attribute their shameful desertion to my want 
of a knowledge of human nature." 



158 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775. 

Perhaps that speech has been drawn too finely and at 
too great length to suit the way and style of General Put- 
nam, for there is an anecdote carefully preserved in the 
"Prescott Memorial" (p. 58) which tells us exactly what he 
did say. The passage reads in this way : " But the men 
did not return, nor was a reinforcement sent. Colonel Pres- 
cott met General Putnam after the action near Charlestown 
Neck, and inquired the cause of his failing to fulfil his 
engagement. General Putnam replied, ' I could not make 
the dogs go' Colonel Prescott then stated, ' If you had 
said to them come, you would have found men enough.' 
'This statement,' writes Doctor O. Prescott, Jr., *I received 
from Colonel Prescott himself, who never forgave Putnam 
for this breach of promise.' " 

Now, first of all, how any man could record or read that 
anecdote without seeing in it that Prescott is made subordi- 
nate to, and dependent upon, Putnam as his military supe- 
rior, is a marvel. Certainly the General Putnam of this 
story is not the man described by one of the modern writers 
from whom we have quoted. He is not the man who had 
no right " to command Massachusetts soldiers on Massa- 
chusetts soil." Colonel Prescott held him responsible, even 
to the extent of never forgiving him, we are told, for not 
sending back those Massachusetts men to the redoubt, 
whether they would or no. He held him responsible, too, 
for not supplying him with reinforcements, when Putnam 
could not possibly get them from General Ward, and when 
Prescott was losing the men he already had. Those whom 
Putnam took out for that temporary service were not the 
first ones he had lost, according to his own story. 

What was the underlying meaning of the last sentence 
in this anecdote .-' Could it be possible Prescott meant to 
imply that General Putnam had not courage enough to go 
to that redoubt, which everybody supposed to be the safest 



^T. 57-] The Forenoon of June Seventeenth. 159 

place on that whole field, and was the safest place so long 
as it was held ? It would not seem that Prescott could 
make such an insinuation as that to such a man. Or did 
he mean that his men were more used to the moral suasion 
system in military affairs, and if Putnam had only said, 
" Come, now, let us reason together," they would have been 
convinced, and would have returned directly to their duty ? 
One or the other of these two inferences must apparently 
be drawn from this anecdote, which is so carefully laid up. 

It is obvious, from a great variety of testimonies and inci- 
dental facts, that the reinforcements were expected to 
march from Cambridge to the field of action, early on the 
morning of June 17th. That was the arrangement of the 
day before. That was Putnam's expectation and Prescott's 
expectation. The men, weary with their night toil, were 
looking early in the morning for the coming of their breth- 
ren with provisions, and with strong arms to take up the 
intrenching tools, and complete the unfinished fortifica- 
tions. 

At what time did those reinforcements come .-' When 
that question is adequately answered, we shall have such a 
vivid idea of General Ward's imbecility as a military com- 
mander, that we shall no longer wonder at that letter of 
Washington to General Lee, already quoted. 

And it is suitable to remark at this point, that had the 
reinforcements gone early in the day, they would have 
found a perfectly open and safe path across Charlestown 
Neck. It was not till well on in the forenoon that the Brit- 
ish brought their floating batteries up the Charles River 
and the Mystic River, to rake that neck and make all pass- 
ing extremely dangerous. 

Individual men went back and forth between Cambridge 
and Charlestown all through those morning hours. There 
has just been published, in an elegant pamphlet, the paper 



i6o Life of Israel Putnam. [1775. 

which Mr. Frothingham read last summer before the Mas- 
sachusetts Historical Society, and in the appendix some 
extracts are given from the diary of Lieutenant-Colonel 
Ephraim Storrs of Mansfield, Connecticut, belonging to 
General Putnam's regiment. In these extracts the author 
of the pamphlet is faithful to record the following item, 
though in doing so he is like that good man spoken of in 
the Scriptures, " that sweareth to his own hurt and chang- 
eth not:" June 17th, " At sunrise this morning a fire began 
from the ships; about 10, went down to General Putnam's 
post, who has the command ; some shot whistled around 
us." 

One can catch sight, by one light and another, of quite a 
number of individuals that went back and forth that fore- 
noon, and doubtless there were many more of whom we 
know nothing. But the first military body that moved on 
to that hill in the way of a reinforcement, so far as appears, 
was the detachment of two hundred from Stark's regi- 
ment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Wyman. No signs are 
discovered of any earlier arrival of men in a military body, 
and from the best light afforded, it does not appear that 
those men came until full 12 o'clock. A forenoon of June 
17th, when the sun rises at 4 o'clock and 23 minutes, is a 
very long one to weary and hungry soldiers. It was a 
most severe trial of faith and patience for those men who 
went there the night before, and many of the eight hundred 
Massachusetts men under Colonel Prescott did not stand 
this tremendous strain upon their sensibilities. They 
deserted in large numbers. If we are to believe Colonel 
Prescott's own statement in his letter to John Adams, they 
deserted in very large numbers. He says that when the 
action began, he was left " with perhaps one hundred and 
fifty men." And this was at the very moment when the 
British columns were moving up those slopes to give battle 



JET. 57-] T/ie Forenoon of June Seventeenth. i6i 

He had sent out some small detachments under Robinson 
and Woods, to flank the enemy, which means, probably, 
that they were to post themselves around the village of 
Charlestown and harass the British left wing. But we pre- 
sume these companies did not number over one hundred. 

Do we accept this statement of Colonel Prescott? Nay, 
we do not accept it. We will not be so unjust to Massa- 
chusetts as to give credence to such a statement ; besides, 
there is satisfactory proof to the contrary. The " Siege of 
Boston" helps us to prove these sentences from that letter 
incorrect. Colonel Prescott certainly leaves the impression 
on all readers that those men from Bridge's and Frye's 
regiments left him early in the morning, and never came 
back. But when the British broke into the redoubt, the 
men from those two regiments were there to be " killed 
and wounded," in about the same proportion to their origi- 
nal numbers as the men in Prescott' s own regiment. The 
killed and wounded in the latter were seventy, in Bridge's 
forty-four, and in Frye's forty-six. Total, one hundred and 
sixty. 

It is to be noticed that the heaviest slaughter on our 
side fell upon those three regiments, because they were di- 
rectly in the path where the British broke through. Up 
to that moment it is not likely that many men had been 
killed or wounded in this fortress, for so long as it re- 
mained unbroken, the men were sheltered as they were no- 
where else along the lines. This slaughter took place in a 
very few moments. The British were terribly exasperated 
at the repulses they had received and the dreadful losses 
that had come upon them ; and they used the bayonets 
which they had (and which our own men had not) with the 
greatest fury. Some of the British accounts of the battle 
describe this fearful slaughter, when our men were huddled 
together and could not escape. 



1 62 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775 

Adjutant Waller, of the Royal Marines, says, "I was 
with those two companies who drove their bayonets into 
all that opposed them. Nothing could be more shocking 
than the carnage that followed the storming this work. 
We tumbled over the dead to get at the living, who were 
crowding out of the gorge of the redoubt." 

But our object just now is to show that the impression 
which Prescott makes in his letter to John Adams, as to 
the wholesale desertion of the men of Bridge's and Frye's 
regiments, as also of the very small number of men he had 
with him when the British came up to attack, is unreliable. 
And the very fact that this slaughter fell in such nearly 
equal proportions upon these three regiments, serves to 
show that they were near together, involved in a common 
fate, and without any reasonable doubt they were all within 
those earthworks, and that there was no other regiment 
with them. 

We do not, then, by any means accept Colonel Prescott's 
statement, that out of his original eight hundred Massachu- 
setts troops, when the battle began he had but about one 
hundred and fifty men in the fort. But we do accept it to 
this extent, that he had had large desertions, that his men 
had been dropping off one by one, or in little companies, 
and that he had not been reinforced. Mr. Frothingham 
says (p. 136), " They were joined just previous to the action 
by portions of Massachusetts regiments, under Colonels 
Brewer, Nixon, Woodbridge, Little, and Major Moore." 
Long search has been made to find clear and reliable proof 
that any Massachusetts regiment in the way of reinforce- 
ments reached that battle line before the action began. If 
we can credit Prescott's own statements, quoted above, he 
had not been reinforced at that time, nor does it appear 
that he was to any extent reinforced during the battle. 
The moral of that anecdote which we have copied from 



^T. 57-] The Forenoon of June Seventeenth. 163 

the "Prescott Memorial" would all fade out, if it could be 
proved that he was reinforced even during the action to 
any substantial degree. We have before us the diary of a 
soldier in Colonel Little's regiment, from which we shall 
make some fuller quotations by-and-by. But a few words 
here will serve to show at what time Colonel Little's 
regiment reached the field. He says, "We were alarmed 
at Cambridge. [Notice that he was at Cambridge.] The 
army set out. [He moved with the main body of the 
Massachusetts reinforcements.] We found the town in 
flames, and the regulars ascending the hill. [The second 
attack of the British was now coming on.] " That serves to 
mark the time of the arrival of Little's regiment. 

As to those desertions during that long forenoon, it may 
naturally be said that men left in that way were under 
peculiar temptations. They had toiled all night, the sun 
was beating heavily upon them in the morning, they were 
hungry and thirsty, and refreshments did not come, the 
promised reinforcements did not come, and it began to 
seem to them, untried soldiers as many of them were, that 
they had been brought on to that hill only to be left uncared 
for and to be sacrificed.* All these thoughts and many 
more went coursing through their excited minds, while the 
cannon from the British ships kept up their thunder, and 
sent their missiles against the earthworks, or whistling 
through the air over their heads. It was enough, we admit, 
to make raw soldiers nervous, and under sore temptations 
to run away; and they did run away, very many of them. 
If Prescott had said that when the attack began he had not 
more than three hundred of his original eight hundred 
Massachusetts men (allowing one hundred more for the 

* " Nothing like discipline had entered our army at that time. General 
Ward, then commander-in-chief, remained at his quarters in Cambridge, and 
apparently took no interest or part in the transactions of the day." — General 
Dearborn, in " Port Folio," March, 1818. 



164 Life of Israel Putnam. [i77S- 

flanking party, so as to make in all four hundred), we should 
feel inclined to believe him. But it must be remembered 
that those two hundred men from Connecticut had also 
toiled all night, and felt upon their heads the hot sun of the 
morning. They were hungry and thirsty like the rest, and 
there is no evidence that a single man of them ran away. 
Colonel Prescott found it far easier, that long, hot, weary 
forenoon, to command those men from another State than 
his own, for they had been under a disciplinarian, and had 
learned the principle of military obedience. 

But we return now to the reinforcements. Those two 
hundred New Hampshire men probably arrived about noon, 
and it is seen by various accounts that they were received 
by General Putnam as the commander on that field, and 
were set to work under his directions. 

We are inclined to the belief that the very next rein- 
forcements did not come till more than two hours after- 
wards, and that they, also, were New Hampshire men. We 
have briefly referred before to Colonel Stark's statement, 
but it is best here to quote it in full. This statement he 
sent to New Hampshire immediately after the battle. Mr. 
Frothingham says the order went to Colonel Stark about 
1 1 o'clock, but this is what Stark himself says : " I was 
required by the General to send a party consisting of two 
hundred men with officers to their assistance, which order 
I readily obeyed, and appointed and sent [Lieutenant-] 
Colonel Wyman, commander of the same, and about 2 
o'clock in the afternoon express orders came for the whole 
of my regiment to proceed to Charlestown to oppose the 
enemy who were landing on Charlestown Point. Accord- 
ingly we proceeded, and the battle soon came on, in which 
a number of officers belonging to my regiment were killed, 
and many privates killed and wounded But we re- 
main in good spirits as yet, being well satisfied that where 
we have lost one, they have lost three." 



^T. 57.] The Forenoon of yune Seventeenth. 165 

Just before the battle, Colonel Reed's regiment had been 
moved from Medford to Charlestown Neck, as will clearly 
appear by the following letter of the Colonel, contained in 
"American Archives" (4th Series, Vol. II. p. 1006) : 

" Then I was informed by Colonel Stark that Medford was so 
full of soldiers that it was necessary for some to take other quar- 
ters. Then I applied to General Ward and received orders in 
these words : 
" (General Orders.) Headquarters, June 12th, 1775. 

** That Colonel Reed quarter his regiment in the houses near 
Charlestown Neck, and keep all necessary guards between his 
barracks and the ferry, and on Bunker Hill.'" 

The order going from Cambridge to the New Hampshire 
regiments would naturally reach Colonel Reed twenty min- 
utes or half an hour earlier than Colonel Stark, and there 
would have been the same difference in the time required 
by the two regiments to reach the field from their starting- 
points. We conclude that Colonel Reed's regiment came 
on first, and took station next to the Connecticut troops 
behind the rail fence, and when Stark arrived three-fourths 
of an hour later, he filled out the line down to the Mystic 
River. But Stark could not possibly get there much before 
3 o'clock. 

We do not discover that any Massachusetts reinforce- 
ments were there by the time when Reed would naturally 
arrive. They were probably just beginning to come at the 
time of Stark's arrival, but did not, like his regiment, march 
straight to their post of duty. They lingered, as we shall 
see, about the neck and on the back side of Bunker Hill. 

With regard to the intrenchments, it is probable Put- 
nam found that he could not properly complete them, and 
it was doubtful whether he was to have any forces to man 
them if he did, so that more and more he turned his thoughts 
toward that line of fence. But it is to be noticed that 



l66 Life of Israel Putnam. [i77S- 

whatever men from New Hampshire were set. to intrench- 
ing, were set to it by Putnam's order. Mr. Frothingham, 
in his "Siege of Boston" (p. 134), makes this company of 
New Hampshire men come from Stark's regiment, and it 
is implied that they were taken out of the regiment by 
General Putnam, after Stark himself was upon the ground. 
This may be so, but they could only labor a short time. 
We must think the two hundred who came earlier did most 
of the intrenching and fence building. But Mr. Frothing- 
ham says, " General Putnam ordered part of these troops 
to labor on the works begun on Bunker Hill." Little 
glimpses which we catch all along through that weary fore- 
noon show how strongly Putnam's mind was set upon these 
intrenchments on Bunker Hill. The removal of the tools 
thither, and the turning aside of men from all the parties 
that came earliest upon the ground, distinctly indicate how 
earnestly his mind was fixed upon this purpose, which after 
all, by the long delays of Ward, he was obliged to abandon. 
It was no slight work to prepare that fence line, fifteen . 
hundred feet in length. It does not appear, moreover, that 
Colonel Gridley, the engineer, had anything specially to 
do in the tracing and construction of this peculiar system 
of fortifications. This idea probably came from the active 
and fertile brain of General Putnam himself,* when he found 

* How remarkably fertile his mind was for such expedients is made 
plain by the following item, which we copy from the " New England Chroni- 
cle," August 31st, 1775, relating to the French and Indian War. In such 
contrivances Putnam was always noted for his ingenuity. 

"Anecdote of General Putnam. — During the late war, when General 
Amherst was marching across the country of Canada, the army coming to one 
of the lakes which they were obliged to pass, found the French had a vessel 
of twelve guns upon it. He was in great distress. His guns were no match 
for her, and she alone was capable of sinking his whole army in that situation. 
While he was pondering what should be done, Putnam came up to him and 
said, ' General, that ship must be taken.'' 'Aye,' said Amherst, * I would give 
the world she was taken.' ' I'll take her,' says Putnam. Amherst smiled and 
asked ' How ? ' ' Give me some wedges, a beetle, .... and a few men of 



^T. 57.] The Forenoon of June Seventeenth. 167 

he must give up his line of intrenchments on Bunker Hill. 
Or, if some one else first suggested it, it is plain that he 
heartily adopted it as the best thing that could be done. 

The actual time when this fence was begun is made 
indefinite in most of the narratives of the battle. But the 
impression generally left upon the reader is that it was has- 
tily constructed just on the eve of the battle. There seems 
to be reason for supposing that it was begun some three or 
four hours before the battle. In its very nature it was not 
the work of a few moments. Almost all accounts agree 
that it was built, or at least begun, by the men of Connecti- 
cut, and it has already been suggested that the apparent 
absence from the fort of those Connecticut troops at 11 
o'clock, is to be explained by this circumstance. 

It doubtless went sorely against the feelings of General 
Putnam to call upon men who had toiled all night. But he 
was driven by a kind of necessity, and it would be alto- 
gether like him to say within himself, I will take only 
those men from my own regiment for this new work. It is 
hard, but they will not complain. It will be noticed that 
the Massachusetts men who were asked to go with those 
tools were not to be set at work with them, much as he 
wanted that work done. It was only to convey them to 
Bunker Hill, and he hoped that fresh men would soon 
appear, who might be set using them. Our theory, then, is 
(it is not a pet theory nor an important one, only as explain- 
ing the probable succession of events) that the fence line 
was begun before 1 1 o'clock, and that the New Hampshire 

my own choice.' Amherst could not perceive how an armed vessel was to be 
taken by four or five men, a beetle and some wedges. However, he granted 
Putnam's request. When night came, Putnam with his materials and men 
went in a boat under the vessel's stern, and in an instant drove in the wedges 
behind the rudder, in the little space between the rudder and ship, and left her. 
In the morning the sails were seen fluttering about ; she was adrift in the 
middle of the lake ; and being presently blown ashore, was easily taken." 



1 68 Life of Israel Ptitnam. [i77S- 

men that came with Lieutenant Wyman helped to build it; 
and when Stark and Reed came with their regiments, it 
was essentially complete, though they probably made some 
slight additions near the Mystic River. 

And now we come to another most interesting scene that 
happened just before the battle; this was the unexpected 
coming of General Joseph Warren upon that field. In 
order to understand the full meaning of this event, it is 
necessary to go back a few days, and know some things that 
had taken place at Cambridge. We cannot better set forth 
the scene than in the simple and touching words of Daniel 
Putnam. 

" He [General Putnam] had soon afterwards a spirited con- 
versation with General Ward, Dr. Warren, and Colonel Joseph 
Palmer,* a member of the Committee of Safety, who incUned to 
favor the measure, but Ward and Warren both opposed it, alleg- 
ing that as we had no powder to spare, and no battering cannon, 
it would be idle to make approaches on the town. He told them 
they had entirely mistaken his views, that it was not for the pur- 
pose of battering the town, but to draw the enemy from it, where 
we might meet them on equal terms, and that Charlestown and 
Dorchester were the only points where this could be done ; that 
the army wished to be employed, and the country was growing 
dissatisfied with the inactivity of it. 

" It was objected again that it might bring on a general battle, 
and that, in our situation, it was neither poUtic or safe to risk 
one. He replied, * Two thousand men will be enough to risk, and 
with that number, we will go on and defend ourselves as long as 
we can, and then give the ground.' 'But suppose your retreat 
should be intercepted ? ' ' We will guard against that and run 
when we can no longer contend with advantage ; we can outrun 

* Colonel Daniel Putnam, in his article in the "Connecticut Historical 
Collections" (Vol. I. p. 243), says that General Joseph Palmer in later 
years purchased a large tract of land in Pomfret, Connecticut, "and in 1782, 
while on a visit here, he called on General Putnam, and recurring to the time, 
recapitulated to him with great minuteness the details of that conversation." 



-^T. 57] The Forenooft of June Seventeenth. 169 

them, and behind every wall rally and. oppose their progress till 
we join our friends again. But suppose the worst, suppose us 
hemmed in, and no retreat ; we know what we are contending 
for, we will set our country an example of which it shall not be 
ashamed, and show men who seek to oppress us what men can 
do who are determined to live free or not live at all.' 

*' Warren, he said, rose and walked several times across the 
room, leaned a few moments over the back of a chair in a 
thoughtful attitude and said, '■Almost thou persuadest me, General 
Putnam, but I must still think the project a rash one. Never- 
theless, if it should ever be adopted, and the strife becomes hard, 
you must not be surprised to find me with you in the midst of it.' 
' I hope not, sir,' said Putnam, 'you are yet but a young man, and 
our country has much to hope from you, both in council and in 
war. It is only a little brush we have been contemplating ; let 
some of us who are older and can well enough be spared begin 
the fray ; there will be time enough for you hereafter, for it will 
not soon be ended.' " 

The import of this conversation will be better understood 
by the general reader if we recall somewhat more fully who 
General Warren was and what he was. Born at Roxbury 
in 1 741, he was at this time only thirty-four years old, in the 
very promise of a glorious life. Highly educated and accom- 
plished, with refined tastes and habits, moving in the most 
cultured circles of society, he had nevertheless gone down 
among the workingmen, identified himself with their socie- 
ties and associations, not for any low, selfish, personal ends, 
but to help form their minds and hearts, and shape their 
thoughts to this great struggle that was coming upon the 
land. He was universally beloved and admired. It has 
already been shown in this volume, and is pointed out by 
many signs, that Putnam and Warren, unlike as they were 
to each other in culture and outward manners, were bound 
to each other by peculiar ties of affection and brotherhood. 
To show how high this man stood in the love and confi- 



I/O Life of Israel Putnam. [1775. 

dence of his fellow-men, it is simply needful to recall that 
he was Chairman of the Massachusetts Committee of 
Safety, President of the Massachusetts Provincial Con- 
gress, and three days before, though he had had but little 
military experience, had been made a Major-General of the 
Massachusetts troops. 

He had not intended to go to that battle-field. He had 
not given his personal consent that the battle should be 
fought. He had an invitation to dine that day with some 
family in Cambridge. He dressed for this dinner-party, 
wearing the full and elaborate suit such as the most refined 
gentlemen of that generation wore on these occasions of 
politeness and ceremony. It was a far more elaborate and 
showy dress than any now known among us on similiar 
occasions. He set out to go to the house where he was to 
dine. On his way he heard the guns from Boston as he 
had heard them at intervals all that morning. A tide of 
patriotic feeling apparently came over him, and he said 
within himself. Here am I, after having talked as much 
patriotic talk as any other man, going to-day on an errand 
of pleasure, to dine with a select party of friends ; and yon- 
der, under this burning sky, are my brethren, perilling their 
lives in the high places of the field. I will not go on this 
errand of pleasure. Come life or come death, I will go to 
those heights of Charlestown, and share the fortunes of 
those men that are fighting for their homes and their 
native soil. And without returning to change his dress 
he went to the battle-field. (A description of the dress he 
had on w^hen he was killed will be found in a later chapter, 
as given by one of the British officers.) 

Now, in some of the modern accounts of the battle no 
one would ever know that Warren met Putnam as he went 
on to that field.* Putnam's name is conveniently slipped 

* Mr. Devens, in his oration last June at Bunker Hill, entirely forgot this 



/Et. 57.] The Forenoon of June Seventeenth. 171 

out and laid aside. But Mr. Frothingham is guilty of no 
such rudeness and historical untruth. On page 170 he 
thus describes the interview which took place between 
these two men that day on the battle-field : 

" A short time before the action commenced, he [Warren] was 
seen in conversation with General Putnam at the rail fence, who 
offered to receive his orders. . General Warren declined to give 
any, but asked where he could be most useful. Putnam di- 
rected him to the redoubt, remarking there he would be covered. 
' Don't think,' said Warren, ' I come to seek a place of safety ; 
but tell me where the onset will be most furious.' Putnam still 
pointed to the redoubt. ' That is the enemy's object, and if that 
can be defended the day is ours.' General Warren passed to the 
redoubt, where the men received him with enthusiastic cheers. 
Here again he was tendered the command by Colonel Prescott. 
But Warren declined it." 

A very natural question certainly to ask just here after 
this quotation is, Did Colonel Prescott tender to General 
Warren precisely the same command that Putnam had just 
before tendered ? If so, there must have been a curious 
state of things on that field. Warren talked first with Put- 
nam, and Putnam, without any consultation, offered to lay 
down his command. What was the nature of that offer } 
Was it simply that Warren might take direction of those 
two hundred Connecticut troops ? Did any one ever so 
understand the record.? Prescott was the commander at 
the redoubt. What was the command which he proposed 
to put into Warren's hands .<• 

But leaving this point, we return to the interview itself. 
Daniel Putnam has given a more lifelike picture of it. He 

circumstance, which Mr. Frothingham faithfully records. Perhaps he did not 
wish to trouble his hearers with perplexing questions. If he had told this story 
about Warren and Putnam, they might have asked inwardly, Was not Putnam 
a General, and if he offered to Warren the command, would he not have to 
offer him a General's command .'' 



172 Life of Israel PutJtam. [1775. 

had often heard the story from his father. It was just as 
the battle was about to open that Warren met him, and as 
he had come on horseback to the neck, he had passed the 
Massachusetts regiments on their march from Cambridge. 

" Alluding to a former conversation he [Putnam] said, * I am 
sorry to see you here, General Warren ; I wish you had taken 
my advice and left this day to us, for from appearances we shall 
have a sharp time of it, and since you are here I am ready to 
submit to your orders.' Warren replied, * I came only as a vol- 
unteer; I know nothing of your dispositions, nor will I interfere 
with them. Tell me where I can be most useful.' Putnam 
pointed to the redoubt, and intent on his safety said, ' You will 
be covered there.' ' Don't think,' said Warren, ' I came here to 
seek a place of safety, but tell me where the onset will be most 
furious.' Putnam pointed again to the redoubt. * That,^ said he, 
'is the enemy's object; Prescott is there and will do his duty, 
and if it can be defended the day will be ours.' Warren left 
him and walked quickly toward the redoubt. The rest, alas, is 
too well known." 

Let us now return again to the subject of the Massachu- 
setts reinforcements. It is generally agreed that Warren 
reached that field only just before the battle opened, and 
that he passed the men who were on their way as reinforce- 
ments. This and many other little items of evidence make 
it sufficiently plain that very few, if any, Massachusetts 
reinforcements had reached that hill when the action 
began.* 

Now let it be understood that while we are trying to dis- 
cover the actual condition of things around that battle- 

* Some brief editorial remarks (very likely by Colonel Scammans himself) 
in the " New England Chronicle " for February 21st, 1776, based upon the court- 
martial to try Colonel Scammans,are very instructive in this connection. As this 
paper was published at Cambridge, it may be believed that the writer knew 
whereof he affirmed. He says, "It is observable that the Adjutant would 
insinuate that the regiment (Colonel Scammans's) arrived at Bunker Hill time 
enough to reinforce the breastwork before it was forced by the enemy, but if 



/Et. 57-] The Forenoon of June Seventeenth. 173 

ground at that late hour of the day, we are not endeavor- 
ing to prove that the men of Massachusetts were not just 
as courageous, just as patriotic, just as good material for sol- 
diers, as the men from the other colonies. Nothing of the 
kind. But what we are seeking to show is, that up to that 
time her regiments had not been brought up to that stand- 
ard of drill and military discipline which had been reached 
by the men of New Hampshire and Connecticut. The 
trouble was primarily in General Artemas Ward himself. 

It will be well for us, at this point, to take a look at Cam- 
bridge around General Ward's headquarters, and try to dis- 
cover what was passing in his mind. 

Mr. Bancroft has before told us, as will be remembered, 
that General Ward " never could introduce exact discipline 
among free men," and it was but natural that the Massa- 
chusetts Colonels should not rise in their methods and 
plans above the standard set them by their commander- 
in-chief. The confusion, timidity, hesitation, desertion, 
among those Massachusetts regiments on the day of the 
battle, was only a more general manifestation of the con- 
fusion, timidity, hesitation and desertion (wq include this 
last word deliberately) of General Ward himself. 

For notice, by way of recapitulation, the plan of action 
was fixed upon the day before. Putnam was to have two 
thousand troops for the expedition. Some accounts lead us 
to believe that those two thousa:nd men were all selected 

the public will only consider that those regiments which were stationed only 
two miles distance [at Cambridge] did not arrive seasonable enough," etc. 

What the Adjutant [Marsden] had said was, "I went half way up Bunker 
Hill with Colonel Scammans, where I left him and went to the breastwork, 
where I got before the enemy forced it. The confusion was so great when we 
got to Bunker Hill we could not form the regiment." 

The following item from the testimony also helps to fix times and seasons : 
"Lieutenant James Donnell deposed, about noon wc marched to Lech- 
mere's Point, where we remained one quarter of an hour. Going from the 
point, Charlestown was set on fire." 



1/4 Life of Israel Putnam. [i77S- 

and set apart for this purpose in the afternoon of the i6th, 
and that they were actually together on Cambridge Com- 
mon that evening, to have God's blessing invoked upon 
them, and his fatherly care and protection sought, in that 
prayer of President Langdon. 

As already explained, it was thought best that only one 
thousand should go that night, as there were not intrenching 
tools enough, so that more than that number could work to 
advantage. The remainder were to stay in Cambridge and 
have the refreshment of sleep, and be ready to march early 
in the morning. Many signs show that this was the im- 
pression of the men who had toiled all night at the fort. 
Prescott and the men with him expected that early rein- 
forcement. Putnam went to Cambridge at the dawn of 
the morning to bring on refreshments and these reserves, 
so that the men on the hill should be kept in good courage 
and cheer. But the firing brought him back personally, 
with instructions left for the refreshments and the other 
forces to follow. If Ward had been a general commander 
of any military force, he would certainly have seen that 
the other thousand men should have been provided with 
everything needful for an early morning start. But when 
the morning came, nothing had apparently been done, and 
what was far worse, the work of the day before had been 
apparently undone. The one thousand men selected for 
the reinforcement seem to have been resolved back into 
their original elements. Ward's vacillating mind as soon 
as he heard those cannon, was whispering inwardly. It 
will never do to let these men go, nor these, nor these, till I 
understand better what is going to happen. The British 
will certainly burst out on some side track and attack Cam- 
bridge. So when the sun rose that morning, the arrange- 
ments of the afternoon before had vanished, and it was a 
totally unsettled question who should go and who not. 



-^T. 57.] The Forenoon of yune Seventeenth. 175 

Hours passed on, and the question was still unsettled. 
Putnam and Prescott, who had both been up all night, were 
looking anxiously through the morning hours for those re- 
inforcements to come. Putnam had been to Cambridge 
once, and now he went again straight across that neck 
where the British had brought their batteries to play. 
Prescott also sent Major Brooks on the same errand. Late 
in the forenoon Ward had that very happy thought, that 
though he ought not to spare any of the six or seven thou- 
sand men round about Cambridge, there was that " party 
of Hampshire" out at Medford and vicinity, that might go. 
That was the best thought he had all that trembling fore- 
noon. But the New Hampshire men had not expected 
this order, and they were not ready, and had to get ready 
with all haste. Their muskets were not of the same bore, 
and into many of them their bullets would not go ; so they 
had to pound them down and elongate them. These were 
probably those " poisoned and chewed bullets " which some 
of the British officers complained were fired at them. 

Through all those long, hot, weary hours, Putnam could 
not help thinking and saying to himself. There is my own 
regiment at Inman's farm, well provided with powder and 
ball, ready to obey my word even to the death. I could 
have them on the ground in an hour. O, if I only had 
them here I could do everything I wish ! And yet so true 
a soldier was he, so accustomed to pay obedience on the one 
hand, and to demand obedience on the other, that he would 
not stir to break through General Ward's official command. 
No matter if even John Adams did say that in that early 
summer of 1775, Putnam was as independent of Ward as 
Ward was of him. They were among the most poorly con- 
sidered words he ever uttered. It was not so. 

There has never been, so far as we are aware, any charges 
that the New Hampshire and Connecticut troops in this 



176 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775. 

battle did not do their duty faithfully and entirely. Mr. 
Frothingham says of the New Hampshire men, "They 
fought with great bravery ; " and of the others, " The con- 
duct of the Connecticut troops is mentioned in terms of 
high commendation in the private letters and journals of 
the time." The deficiencies and disorders of that day, and 
the courts-martial that followed, were confined wholly to the 
Massachusetts regiments. 

We will now proceed to give some illustrations from eye 
witnesses, showing what these disorders were. The large 
desertions from the fort we have already referred to. But 
on the other point we will first give the following graphic 
extract from a letter of Captain Chester. He was the very 
last sent for to come to the battle, and he managed to over- 
come all obstacles and break through all the hindrances of 
the crowds he encountered, and reach the front line before 
the battle was over. And this is what he saw on his way : 

" I waited not, but ran and got my arms and ammunition, and 
hasted to my company (who were in the church for barracks), and 
found them nearly ready to march. We soon marched, with our 
frocks and trousers on over our other clothes (for our company is 
in uniform wholly blue turned up with red), for we were loath to 
expose ourselves by our dress, and down we marched. I imag- 
ined we arrived at the hill near the close of the battle. When 
we arrived there was not a company with us in any kind of 
order, although when we first set out perhaps three regiments 
were by our side and near us ; but here they were scattered, some 
behind rocks and hay-cocks, and thirty men perhaps behind an 
apple tree, and frequently twenty men round a wounded man, 
retreating, when not more than three or four could touch him to 
advantage ; others were retreating seemingly without any excuse, 
and some said they had left the fort with leave of the officers 
because they had been all night and day on fatigue duty, without 
sleep, victuals or drink, and some said they had no officers to 
head them, which indeed, seemed to be the case. 



^T. 57-] The Forenooit of j^une Seventeenth. 177 

" At last I met a considerable company who were going off 
rank and file. I called to the officer that led them, and asked 
why he retreated. He made me no answer. I halted my men, 
and told him if he went on it should be at his peril. He still 
seemed regardless of me. I then ordered my men to make 
ready. They immediately cocked, and declared if I ordered 
they would fire. Upon that they stopped short, tried to excuse 
themselves, but I could not tarry to hear him, but ordered him 
forward, and he complied. 

" We were then very soon in the heat of action. Before we 
reached the summit of Bunker Hill, and while we were going over 
the neck, we were in imminent danger from the cannon shot 
which buzzed around us like hail. The musketry began before 
we passed the neck [/. e. they heard it in the distance] ; and 
when we were on the top of the hill, and during our descent to 
the foot of it on the south, the small as well as cannon shot were 
incessantly whistling by us. We joined our army on the right of 
the centre [/. e. behind the fence line nearest to the fort], just by 
a poor stone fence two or three feet high, and very thin, so that 
the-bullets came through. Here we lost our regularity, as every 
company had done before us, and fought as they did, every man 
loading and firing as fast as he could. As near as I could guess 
we fought standing about six minutes." 

And then the crash came, the British had mounted the 
parapet, the fortress was carried, and the centre and left 
wings had to retreat. 

This is one vivid picture of what was going on that day, 
on the back of Bunker Hill, around the neck, and along 
the road to Cambridge. Massachusetts writers have, very 
naturally, not cared to tell their readers that these disorders 
were confined to the Massachusetts regiments, nor should 
we wish to dwell upon this subject now, in this centennial 
year of joy and good feeling, except for the ends of justice 
and historical truth. 

Take another picture given us by General Dearborn, at 
12 



178 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775. 

that time a Captain of a company in Stark's regiment. It 
relates to the march of the regiment from Medford to Bun- 
ker Hill. He says, — 

" When it reached Charlestown Neck we found two regiments 
halted, in consequence of a heavy enfilading fire thrown across 
it of round, bar, and chain shot from the Lively frigate, and the 
floating batteries anchored in Charles River, and a floating bat- 
tery laying in the Mystic. Major McClary went forward and 
observed to the commanders, that if they did not intend to move 
on he wished them to open and let our regiment pass ; the latter 
was immediately done. My company being in front, I marched 
by the side of Colonel Stark, who moving with a very deliberate 
pace, I suggested the propriety of quickening the march of the 
regiment that it might sooner be relieved from this galling cross- 
fire of the enemy. With a look peculiar to himself he fixed his 
eyes upon me, and observed with great composure, ' Dearborn, 
one fresh man in action is worth ten fatigued ones,' and con- 
tinued to advance in the same cool and collected manner. When 
we reached the top of Bunker Hill, where General Putnam had 
taken his station, the regiment halted for a few moments for the 
rear to come up." 

The reader will take notice that the narrator here saw 
General Putnam, and he was on the top of Bunker Hill. 
That was ground where he could overlook the redoubt, and 
the whole field of operations, and see whether troops were 
coming from Cambridge. But the battle had not yet begun. 
In a subsequent chapter of this volume the reader will find 
that General Dearborn tried to make Putnam a coward, 
because, as he thinks, he did not come forward into the 
fighting lines. In this he was mistaken. But if General 
Putnam had kept that position on the top of Bunker Hill, 
after the British lines came up and began their firing, his 
chances of being killed would have been at least ten times 
greater than though he had been in the redoubt. It is a 



JEt. S7.] The Forenoon of yune Seventeenth. 179 

notorious fact in this battle, that the British fired over the 
heads of our men who were in the front of the fight. Cap- 
tain Chester has just told us how the cannon and musket 
shot whistled past him, from the moment he reached the 
top of Bunker Hill and began to descend. It was a very- 
poor place for a coward to take refuge. The men who 
really kept out of danger were over on the back side of the 
hill, and around the neck. General Dearborn, therefore, 
when he brought his calumnious charges against General 
Putnam for cowardice, fixed upon an exceedingly undesira- 
ble place for a coward to tarry in order to keep out of dan- 
ger. Colonel Swett, in his history of the battle, speaks of 
the top of Bunker Hill in these words : " The battle indeed 
appeared here in all its horrors. The British musketry 
fired high and took effect on this elevated hill, and it was 
completely exposed to the combined fire from their ships, 
batteries and field pieces." 

In the distribution of the forces from these three States, 
it fell to the lot of the New Hampshire men to guard the 
fence line at the northern extremity, near the Mystic River. 
It fell to the Connecticut men to guard the same line 
nearer to the redoubt, and by them this fence line had been 
mainly constructed. The operations of the Massachusetts 
men circled chiefly about the redoubt, inside or out, where 
Prescott was stationed. Some of them were along the fence 
line, but not a great number. Some were in the half-open 
space between the southerly end of the fence line and the 
redoubt. Some were behind the earthwork which extended 
out from the redoubt northward, and which was, if not a 
part of the redoubt, an appendage of it. A few were down 
by the road running through the village of Charlestown. 

Let it be further borne in mind that this redoubt, on 
the morning of the 1 7th of June, was regarded, both by the 
Americans and the British, as the stronghold on those 



i8o Life of Israel Putnam. [i77S- 

Charlestown Heights. Later in the day, when that fence 
line had been hastily constructed out of the frail and chance 
materials that came to hand, it was looked upon both by 
the Americans and. the British as a very fragile affair com- 
pared with the fortress on the top of Breed's Hill. The 
Massachusetts men were not asked in any considerable 
numbers to guard that weak line of the fence. They were 
allowed to make Prescott in the redoubt the central figure 
around whom they should rally, and the Connecticut and 
New Hampshire men would take what every one on both 
sides would say was the place of chief danger. The Brit- 
ish certainly thought the fence line the easiest place for 
them to break through ; and when Putnam, sorry to see 
Warren on that field, advised him to go to the redoubt, un- 
questionably he was seeking for him the place of greatest 
security. Warren at least surmised this was in Putnam's 
mind, and answered that he did not come there to find a 
place of safety. Putnam was too noble and generous- 
hearted to tell Warren, under these conditions, that the re- 
doubt was the safest place, so he told him that was the ob- 
ject at which the enemy aimed, and still advised him to go 
there, as he did. It is clear, by a great volume of con- 
current testimony from both sides, that the redoubt was 
regarded as the stronghold to which one might fly and be 
comparatively safe. 

These two thousand men of Massachusetts were allowed, 
if they would come to the front, to be stationed mainly in 
and immediately around that redoubt, but the great body of 
them managed, or were so managed, as never to get there.* 

* " There may have been a very few volunteers from various regiments 
of the Massachusetts army scattered over the entire field, but theirs was the 
spirit of enthusiasm which needed no orders, and would have paid little atten- 
tion to them had any been issued. There is little doubt, however, that the 
number of these zealous ones is greatly exaggerated, and that the mention of 
single members of a company or of single companies of a regiment is too often 



■^T. 57-] The Forenoon of June Seventeenth. i8i 

In concluding this chapter, there is one general sugges- 
tion which we do not remember to have seen distinctly 
made, and which will probably explain, in some measure, 
the backwardness of Massachusetts soldiers that day. They 
knew that General Ward did not approve of the battle. 
They knew that Warren did not approve of it. The Com- 
mittee of Safety had urged the movement, and the council 
of war by a major vote had ordered it. But the Massa- 
chusetts troops were doubtless well aware that Ward, to 
whom they looked up as head commander, did not want it. 
If one could report to us to-day what was heard among 
those regiments, in conversations between man and man, 
he would probably bring us many expressions of dislike, 
that a General from another colony should prevail to make 
them do what their own commander did not wish them to 
do. This vitiating influence, without much doubt, spread 
itself more or less through those troops, and took away 
all their force as soldiers. They saw how slow General 
Ward had been to send them at all; and they thought 
they might hang back and be just as slow as he. Raw 
troops have motives enough for a kind of cowardly conduct 
in themselves, without having this tendency so directly min- 
istered to as it was in this case by General Ward himself. 

We have referred to the confusion and want of organiza- 
tion and co-operation among the Massachusetts regiments. 
Some may think we are writing in a partisan spirit, and col- 
oring the facts too highly. We will take a passage then from 
Doctor Ellis (p. 41), and let him tell us some of the facts. 

" Now it was that our troops and our cause suffered from the 

received as evidence of the presence in the battle of the entire bodies to which 
they respectively belonged ; indeed, it is said by a respectable writer, who has 
investigated the subject, that in addition to the New Hampshire not more 
than a hundred and fifty men reached the peninsula and actually participated 
in the action during the whole of this notable Saturday." — Mr. Dawson, in 
" Historical Magazine," June, 1868. 



1 82 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775. 

want of discipline, and from the confusion apparent in the whole 
management of the action, originating in the extemporized and 
imperfect preparation, and in the bafifiing secrecy of the purposes 
of the enemy. The neck of land, ploughed by the incessant 
volle3''s from the ships, and clouded by the dust thus raised, was 
an almost insuperable barrier to the bringing on of reinforce- 
ments. Major Gridley, wholly lacking in spirit and skill, had 
been put in command of a battalion of infantry, in compliment 
to his father. He lost, and could not recover, his self-possession 
and courage. Though ordered to the hill, he advanced towards 
Charlestown slowly and timidly ; and though urged by Colonel 
Frye to hasten, he was satisfied with the scant service of firing 
three-pounders from Cobble Hill upon .the * Glasgow ' frigate. 
His Captain, Trevett, refused obedience to such weakness, and 
ordered his men to follow him to the works. Colonel Gerrish, 
with his artillery on Bunker's Hill, could neither be urged nor 
intimidated by Putnam to bring his pieces to the rail fence. He 
was unwieldy by corpulence, and overcome with heat and fatigue. 
His men had been scattered from the summit of Bunker's Hill, 
where the enemy's shot had taken tremendous effect, as it was 
supposed to be strongly fortified." 

(Notice in this last sentence vv^hat Doctor Ellis thinks of 
the safety of remaining on the top of Bunker Hill, where 
General Dearborn says Putnam stayed in order to be out 
of danger.) 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE BATTLE. 

Description of Bunker Hill and its Surroundings. — Landing of the British, 
and Plan of Attack. — First Assault and its Consequences. — Burning of 
Charlestown. — Second Assault. — Interval. — Change of Plan. — Reinforce- 
ments. — The Redoubt Carried. — The Retreat. — Killed and Wounded. 

BUNKER HILL is on a peninsula nearly a mile long 
in its longest part, and about half a mile wide in its 
widest part. This peninsula is now almost entirely covered 
with buildings. But in 1775 it was mostly open country. 
Here were pastures and mowing-grounds, and lands de- 
voted to various forms of farm culture. The village of 
Charlestown stood near its south-eastern extremity, looking 
directly across the wide mouth of the Charles River over 
upon Boston, or what would now be called the North End 
of Boston, which embraces mainly what was called the 
town of Boston in 1775. 

For the sake of readers unfamiliar with the ground, it is 
desirable to give as clear and minute a description as possi- 
ble of this peninsula as it appeared one hundred years ago. 
Its neck where it connected with the main land was a nar- 
row passage-way, over which all travellers coming in from 
Cambridge, Lexington, Concord, and the country gener- 
ally west and north-west, must pass if they wished to go 
to Charlestown, or to Boston by the way of Charlestown. 
The present causeways and bridges connecting Cambridge 
with Boston had then no existence. As one came in from 
the open country and was passing this neck toward Charles- 

183 



184 Life of Israel Ptittiam. [i77S- 

town, he was moving almost directly south-east. The water 
on the left or northerly side of him was the Mystic River, 
so called, which here near its mouth is an arm of the sea 
of considerable width and depth. The water on his right 
hand was the Charles River, also an arm of the sea, the 
tide-water setting inland for some seven miles. As soon 
as the traveller passed the neck, he began to ascend. 
Bearing slightly to the left, and going on about one-third of 
a mile, he would find himself on the very top of the real 
Bunker Hill, about one hundred and ten feet above the sea 
level, the highest land on the peninsula. On his left he 
would then look down on the waters of Mystic River or Bay, 
the land falling off in that direction in a somewhat steep 
declivity. The peninsula is not so wide here as farther on, 
perhaps not more than a quarter of a mile. But the trav- 
eller would be much nearer here to the Mystic River than 
to the Charles. Standing on Bunker Hill and looking 
nearly east, to the very end of the peninsula where it meets 
the waters of Boston Bay, he would see the land falling off 
rapidly immediately before him, till it came down to a spot 
low and marshy, and then it would begin to rise moderately. 
At the very end of this land view, his eye would rest upon a 
small elevation called Morton's Point. Turning now more to 
the right, or south-east, he would look down a slope to this 
same marshy land before spoken of, but higher above the sea 
level here than that lying more towards the Mystic River ; 
and when this was passed he would see the land again as- 
cending until it reached the top of Breed's Hill, some sixty 
or seventy feet above the tide-water, where the redoubt was 
built, and where the monument now stands. From the top 
of Bunker Hill to the top of Breed's Hill, the distance 
was about a third of a mile. Turning now still more to 
the right and going on a little distance farther, still de- 
scending, the traveller would find himself in the village of 




Plan of the Battle of Blnker Hill, June 17TH, 1775. 



^T. 57-] The Battle. 185 

Charlestown among the houses and shops and stores nestled 
close along the shore. Some of these houses and barns on 
the upper slope came near the top of Breed's Hill. It is 
not nearly so far to the water's edge in a line drawn straight 
from Bunker Hill, across the top of Breed's Hill, as when 
a line is drawn from Bunker Hill to Morton's Point. In 
other words, the land pushes out farther into the water at 
Morton's Point, than anywhere else on the south-easterly 
end of the peninsula. 

The British began to take their men over from Boston to 
Morton's Point in boats about 12 o'clock, and they com- 
pleted this business of transportation about 2 o'clock. The 
reinforcements afterwards brought over were landed at a 
place lying midway between Morton's Point and the village 
of Charlestown. 

On the top of Breed's Hill, lying near the village of 
Charlestown, a redoubt about eight rods square had been 
constructed during the night of June i6th, facing easterly; 
and in the morning a line of embankment had been carried 
north from the front corner about twenty rods. So silently 
had this work been done, beneath the waning moon, that 
the British sentries pacing along the shore of Charles River, 
and the night guards on the ships anchored near by in the 
bay, knew nothing of it till the morning dawned. The 
dawn, however, comes early in the middle of June. 

Going now to the northern end of this twenty-rod em- 
bankment, and passing around the corner, then turning to 
the north-west (with a little open space left between), the 
fence line, so called, began. It first ran about six hundred 
feet in the direction just named (to the north-west) till 
it struck the lower slopes of Bunker Hill; then turning 
at an obtuse angle, it went in a straight line along these 
lower slopes, dropping down gradually till it reached the 
Mystic River. This last section of fence was about nine 



i86 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775- 

hundred feet in length, making that of the whole fence line 
fifteen hundred feet. 

When the British officers took a survey of these lines of 
defence from Morton's Point, they saw at the extreme left, 
as they were facing this redoubt, which, with the embank- 
ment running out from it, presented to them a front line 
of earthworks measuring a little more than four hundred 
and fifty feet in length. Then from near the corner of 
these earthworks, they saw the fence line running in a 
diagonal, six hundred feet. Then turning, it ran nine hun- 
dred feet, in a way to meet their eye almost as a front fac- 
ing line. This last line thrown back, as it was some four 
hundred or four hundred and fifty feet beyond the face line 
of the redoubt, was not exactly parallel with it, and yet it 
approached a parallel. As the British officers looked upon 
this extended arrangement, the redoubt at the left, on the 
high land, probably gained from them a degree of serious 
respect. But as to that low, fragile fence line, it was with- 
out much doubt treated by them with a kind of contemptu- 
ous laughter. They naturally enough thought that British 
soldiers would walk over that impediment as easily as 
sheep in search of water or fresh grass would go over a 
tumble-down stone wall. And they laid their plan of bat- 
tle accordingly. That plan we will not now explain, as it 
comes up naturally later in the chapter. But this was the 
aspect of things which met their eyes just before the bat- 
tle, as they looked upon what the Americans had been 
about during the night and forenoon. And in reference to 
ihtforcfwou let it be understood, as already suggested, that 
we call the part of the day by this name which passed 
before the beginning of the battle. 

Seldom does it happen that a battle-ground is so set that 
the action can be watched from so many directions, and by 
so many people, as in this case. All Boston could flock to 



/Et. 57.] TAe Battle. i ^y 

the steeples and house-tops, and without any help from 
field-glasses, could see the main part of what was occur- 
ring. From many of the high lands about the town 
south-westerly, northerly, easterly, spectators could have a 
more distant view of the scene. What was passing close 
down by the Mystic River could not be seen very well 
except from the north and north-east. But the redoubt 
stood in open sight from many points of observation. 

Cambridge could not see the battle ; she could only hear 
its noise. Bunker Hill cut off her view. But from the high 
lands of Brookline and Roxbury the distant view would be 
excellent. The look-out places about the town were many, 
and numerous eyes watched the progress of the fight, British 
and American alike. 

When the action began, a little after 3 o'clock, such 
troops as Massachusetts had in the fighting lines, as before 
stated, were mainly in and about the redoubt, though some 
few were behind the fence. The Connecticut men came 
next along the fence line, and the New Hampshire men 
filled out that line down to the river. 

As the British moved up to the attack, they came in 
three columns. It would be easy to tell the assortment of 
the British forces, showing what regiments were in this 
column, and what in that. This has been often told, and it 
would be easy to repeat the enumeration. But it matters 
little to us now what the names and modes of designation 
were for these troops, or how they were sorted and arranged. 
It is rather confusing than otherwise to the average reader. 
Suffice it to say, they were among the best troops which 
England had to send. It is computed that she then had in 
and about Boston ten thousand men. She anticipated seri- 
ous business, and had sent here her most renowned battalions. 

Mr. Frothingham computes the American forces at that 
time as follows (p. 10 1) : "Massachusetts furnished eleven 



1 88 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775. 

thousand five hundred; Connecticut two thousand three 
hundred ; New Hampshire one thousand two hundred ; 
and Rhode Island one thousand." 

After the British ranks were arranged, and the columns 
were ready to move forward, Howe sent over to Boston for 
reinforcements. He told the soldiers to halt and eat their 
dinners, while he dispatched messengers for additional 
troops. When these were added, and they moved up to 
battle, they were doubtless between two and three thousand 
strong. We have said that they moved in three columns, 
and yet the two northerly columns nearest the Mystic were 
parts of one whole, and these two constituted together the 
right wing of the army, under the special command of 
Howe, who was also chief commander on the field. The 
other column constituted the left wing, under General 
Bigot's special command.* 

A word more as to these two columns composing the 
right wing. Some of the finest companies in the whole 
British army had been selected to make a column which 
should move close along the Mystic River, and while the 
other column of the right wing should move up and engage 
the fortress and that part of the fence line nearest to the 
fortress, this column by the Mystic (when the attention of 
the American lines would naturally be called away, to some 
extent, by the firing which would begin near the redoubt) 
should make a bold push and go over that fence at a point 
near the river, rush up the sides of Bunker Hill, and flank 
the redoubt on Breed's Hill. 

* " Opposing these (the British troops) were the raw, undisciplined bodies 
of insurgents posted behind the rail fence and the unfinished breastwork, 
and in the earthen redoubt on Breed's Hill, numbering together not more 
than fifteen hundred men, while those who were skulking on the slopes of 
Bunker Hill, afraid either to "fight or to run over ' the neck,' and numbering 
in the aggregate nearly the same number, were neither useful nor ornamental 
for the purposes of the expedition." — Mr. Dawson in " Historical Magazine," 
June, 1868. 



JET.S7-] The Battle. 189 

Captain Dearborn, who was with Stark by the Mystic, 
tells us that the attack first began by the firing of Howe's 
column upon the redoubt, which was answered. He says, 
" At the moment our regiment was formed in the rear of 
the rail fence, with one other small regiment from New 
Hampshire [this remark of his about the other regiment as 
small, implies that Stark's was larger, and shows that we 
have not probably overestimated the number from New 
Hampshire] under the command of Colonel Reed, the fire 
commenced between the left wing of the British army, 
commanded by General Howe, and the troops in the re- 
doubt under Colonel Prescott, while a column of the enemy 
was advancing on our left on the shore of Mystic River, 
with an evident intention of turning our left wing." 

This firing upon the redoubt then was only a feint. 
They regarded this as the stronghold, and they meant to 
take it by flanking it, and not by storming it. The animus 
of that first attack was in that column of picked compa- 
nies, making a force of several hundred men, that was 
creeping stealthily along by the banks of the Mystic. 
Howe had sagaciously, as he thought, acted upon the idea 
that raw troops fresh from the farm would be so excited, 
and have their attention so drawn to the point where the 
firing began, that this column would break through almost 
without hindrance. But in this he had made a great mis- 
take. The New Hampshire troops, withholding their fire 
till the column was near, poured such a deadly volley upon 
it, directed with the aim of hunters, that its front lines 
went down as grass before the mower's scythe. Dearborn 
says, " In the course of ten or fifteen minutes the enemy 
gave way at all points, and retreated in great disorder, leav- 
ing a large number of dead and wounded on the field." 
(We shall elsewhere show how terribly destructive that fire 
of the New Hampshire men was upon the front ranks of 



190 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775. 

this column.) Without materially changing his plan of 
attack, Howe tried this experiment the second time, only 
now a new element of excitement was mingled with the 
scene. Charlestown was on fire. In the first attack, Pigot 
found that his left wing, which swung round near to the 
village of Charlestown, was played upon seriously by sharp- 
shooters, who made the houses and barns of that village 
nests and hiding-places for their operations. As a war 
measure, the British troops were doubtless right in burning 
the village. If they were justified in making the attack at 
all, they were justified in this expedient to give it success. 
As the British lines closed in the second time, the smoke 
and flames were rolling fiercely up from the burning vil- 
lage. Bigot's left wing was seemingly thrown more exclu- 
sively against the redoubt than even the left-hand column 
of Howe. The latter began the firing in the first attack 
upon the redoubt, but the column, as we understand the 
order of the movement, was centrally thrown more upon 
the upper lines of the fence than upon the redoubt. The 
second attack, based upon the same general idea as the first, 
was alike unsuccessful. The New Hampshire and Con- 
necticut men, with such Massachusetts forces as were with 
them, rolled back both those columns of I;Iowe with heavy 
slaughter. 

Now, let it be borne in mind that up to this time there 
had been no really earnest and hearty attack upon the re- 
doubt. The firing upon it had been very considerable, both 
with cannon and with musketry, at long range, for the Brit- 
ish were plying their cannon as well as their small arms. 
But they had not in either case really tried to take it. 
That was not the order of their plan. They wanted to 
seem to be trying to take it, both for engaging the men in 
and about it, and also drawing off the attention of the other 
American troops. But the real brunt of the two first onsets 



^T. 57.] The Battle. 191 

was against the fence line, and reaching all along that line 
from one end to the other, though sharpest near the river. 
Mr. Dawson's account of this battle, contained in the " His- 
torical Magazine " for June, 1868, is fuller and better in some 
respects than any we know, and we quote the following 
graphic passages from him. He calls the repulses at the 
fence three instead of two. 

" The rail fence, on the high bank against which the grena- 
diers and their flank company were moving in a parallel column, 
was manned with the remainder of the New Hampshire troops 
commanded by Colonel Stark ; by those from the same colony 
commanded by Colonel Reed ; and by the four incomplete com- 
panies of Connecticut men, commanded by Captain Knowlton. 
.... Colonel Stark in person commanded on the extreme left 
of this rail fence, directly above the temporary wall on the beach, 
.... and he is said to have ordered his men at the fence to re- 
serve their fire until the half-gaiters of the approaching grena- 
diers should become distinctly visible. The Connecticut men, 
who occupied the rail fence on the right of the New Hampshire 
men, are said to have been instructed in like manner by their 
officers, to withhold their fire also until they could see the whites 
of the grenadiers' eyes. When the grenadiers and light infantry 
reached the points which had been thus designated as the ' dead- 
lines ' of their respective lines of march, the insurgents opened 
upon them a well-directed and rapid fire ; and entire ranks were 
mowed down in an instant with terrible accuracy. Both the 
grenadiers on the bank, and the light infantry on the beach, of 
course, were instantly thrown into the utmost disorder, and fell 
back discomfited, beyond the range of the insurgents' fire \ 
and there, under cover of an unevenness in the ground, the former 
were rallied, and soon after returned to the attack, the light 
infantry also re-forming and co-operating with them on the bank 
as far as they were able to do so. The grenadiers and the light 
infantry, thus re-formed, with singular bravery moved against the 
fence and wall a second time ; but the insurgents concentrated 
their defence, and with the same steadiness and accuracy as be- 



192 Life of Israel Putnam. [i775- 

fore, poured upon the shortened line of their assailants another 
fire which was as murderous as the first. Again the royal 
troops were repulsed, and a second time they fell back, scathed, 
but not dishonored. But the end of this terrible slaughter was 
not yet. The pride of the officers and the obstinacy of the 
troops could not quietly submit to even this renewed disaster, 
and again the shattered companies of grenadiers and light in- 
fantry were re-formed, and with a still more shortened line than 
they had previously presented, and with depressed spirits, they 
approached the fence a third time. They were repulsed the 

third time 

" During the continuance of this stubborn contest on the left 
of the insurgents' position, which occupied upwards of an hour, 
there seems to have been no serious attempt by the left wing of 
the royal troops to carry either the redoubt or the breastwork, 
although a vigorous fire had been kept up in order to employ the 
insurgents who were posted behind those earthworks, but the 
third repulse of the grenadiers and light infantry probably con- 
vinced General Howe of the hopelessness of his original under- 
taking, and led him to make an entirely new disposition of his 
command. He accordingly allowed the shattered fragments of 
the eleven companies of light troops — those which had escaped 
from the terrible ordeal to which they had been exposed in front 
of the rail fence and stone wall on the extreme right of his line 
of attack — to amuse and hold in check those whom they had 
recently assaulted, while he should direct his attention to the 
right of the insurgents' position, the redoubt and the breast- 
work, in which were only the handfyl of Massachusetts men 
commanded by Colonel Prescott, and the very few stragglers 
who had ventured to assist them." * 

* If any one doubts whether this was the real plan or order of the battle at 
its opening, we commend to his perusal the long and able note in fine type on 
page 347 of the " Historical Magazine," from which we have quoted. In this 
note Mr. Dawson cites his authorities and arranges his evidences in a very 
admirable manner. He quotes, from English and American officers, little pas- 
sages just to the point. He takes a sentence from Gage's dispatch to his 
Government, which of itself is sufificient authority on a matter like this. He 



JET. 57-] T/ze Battle. 193 

After the second repulse (we reckon as two what Mr. D. 
calls three), there was a pause of considerable length. The 
British troops found they had very heavy and serious work 
on their hands. More reinforcements came over from Bos- 
ton. General Clinton also came. These things necessa- 
rily required time. There was a breathing spell. If those 
Massachusetts regiments which Ward had despatched at 
the last moment, and who might reasonably urge that they 
did not have time to get there before the battle began, had 
wished to bear a hand in this action, here was a fine oppor- 
tunity for them to come forward and fill that redoubt with 
fresh men and fresh ammunition to its utmost limit of 
accommodation. There were Massachusetts soldiers enough 
about that hill, doing nothing, to have crowded this fortress 
beyond its proper capacity. The very fact of these two 
repulses would seem to have been enough to put courage 
into men that had not had it before, and there was powder 
enough on that field, if it could only be got to the front 
where it was wanted. It would certainly have been the 
height of folly for General Ward to send soldiers to that 
field without powder, and there were in that immediate 
vicinity doubtless a thousand Massachusetts soldiers who 
had hardly fired a gun. 

We will copy now a brief passage from the " Siege of 
Boston " (p. 147), descriptive of the state of things at this 
point of time. " While such was the confusion at Bunker 
Hill, good order prevailed at the redoubt. Colonel Prescott 

says, " The light infantry was directed to force the left point of the breast- 
work [Gage calls the whole fence line a breastwork] to take the rebel line in 
flank ; the grenadiers to attack in front, supported by the fifth and fifty- 
second battalions." He refers also to General Wilkinson as saying, on the 
authority of Stark, that at first "the fire on the redoubt was feeble and at 
long range, ' apparently with a design to d/'aw the attention of Colonel Pres- 
cott^ " and also in the last attack that Stark's men were " unassatled and unoc- 
ctipied." 

13 



194 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775- 

remained at his post, determined in his purpose, undaunted 
in his bearing, inspiring his command with hope and confi- 
dence, and yet chagrined that in this hour of peril and 
glory adequate support had not reached him." 

But at page 136 of the " Siege of Boston," the reader 
will find that the redoubt had been reinforced "just pre- 
vious to the action, by portions of Massachusetts regiments 
under Colonels Brewer, Nixon, Woodbridge, Little and 
Major Moore, and one company of artillery." That would 
seem to be " adequate support." With any such numbers 
as this mention of five regiments naturally suggests, there 
would then have been in the redoubt (including those who 
were there before) not less than eight or nine hundred men, 
about as many as could have been efficiently employed on 
that front line. But were those reinforcements on hand 
" just previous to the action " ">. Or did they ever get there .-• 
It does not seem fair nor symmetrical, that the Massachu- 
setts regiments, on the one hand, should have the credit of 
reinforcing Prescott, and that Prescott, on the other, should 
be chagrined and indignant that he was not reinforced. 

We have already alluded to a species of ridicule cast upon 
General Putnam, because he was riding around so furiously 
on the back side of Bunker Hill urging forward these rein- 
forcements. In some of these passages, the fact is made to 
hold, and to discharge upon the mind of the reader, the 
insinuation that he preferred to be over there about such 
business, out of harm's way, rather than to mingle in the 
fury of the fray, where the bullets were flying. But in his 
immense activities that day we have never been able to see 
either the cowardly or the ridiculous. We see only an 
elderly man, putting in exercise every power of his mind 
and body to make up for other men's deficiences, and to 
save from ignominious failure an enterprise of vast impor- 
tance to the common cause. We are all ready to admit 



^T. 57.] The Battle. 195 

now that the moral consequences of this first great battle 
of the Revolution were very weighty, and that is why men 
want the honors of the enterprise who are not entitled to 
them. General Putnam had from the first some clear fore- 
shadowings of what the result would be, if a reasonable 
amount of success could be secured that day ; and no man 
ever went through more prodigious toil than he to make 
the enterprise a success. And while upon this point, we 
may call attention to a direct antagonism among those 
writers who would take the honors of that day from him. 
General Dearborn would have it that Putnam kept essen- 
tially in one place on the top of Bunker Hill, out of the 
way of danger, by the side of Colonel Gerrish. It helped 
to lend a nice sting to the charge, to put him in concert 
with, and by the side of, Colonel Gerrish, whose regiment 
that day only managed to get three men killed and two 
wounded. This association would seem at once to give 
him the companionship of cowards. But another writer, 
not friendly to General Putnam, keeps him in a kind of per- 
petual motion, for idle or ignoble ends. With him. General 
Putnam that day was " well-nigh ubiquitous." This last 
testimony is undoubtedly correct, but Putnam would have 
been far more quiet and near one place, if General Ward 
and the Massachusetts regiments had only done their duty. 
As one studies his movements during those battle hours, 
this appears to be the law that governed them. When the 
British were making their desperate onsets to break our 
line (call them two, three, ar four, as you please, for writers 
differ, not substantially but technically), Putnam was al- 
ways near the front in the very thickest of the fray. But 
the moment there was a respite, and he could be spared, he 
rushed up Bunker Hill and over the back side of it to see 
if he could not put some courage into those halting Massa- 
chusetts regiments, and move them forward to reinforce 



196 Life of Israel Puttiam. [i775- 

Colonel Prescott. But those hasty journeys seem to have 
been of no great use. He ran against a mass of inertia 
that he could not overcome. He could tarry often but a 
few moments, for he must hasten and be back in his place. 
We accept the words " well-nigh ubiquitous " as exactly 
meeting the case, for he was trying to do his own work 
and that which belonged to others, but which by them was 
left undone. 

We can, with the most perfect confidence, challenge any 
man to bring real proof, such as will stand close examina- 
tion, showing that Putnam was ever away for five minutes 
from the fighting line while the sharp fighting was going 
on. Mr. Frothingham is authority for his being there when 
the action began. " General Putnam was here [by the 
fence line] when the action commenced." Major Small 
(as we shall hereafter show) is authority that he was on 
hand at a later point, where the fight was hottest. Mr. 
Frothingham and Dr. Ellis are both witnesses that he was 
close at hand when the redoubt was finally carried. He 
was "well-nigh ubiquitous," but it was not to his dishonor, 
nor for Massachusetts' glory, that he had to be so. 

We turned aside in the pause. of the battle. Let us now 
come back and look at its closing act. That redoubt was 
not filled with fresh troops and fresh ammunition in the in- 
terval of delay, at least not to any great extent. There 
were men enough, but the Committee of Safety, General 
Putnam, and many others, say that there were never over 
fifteen hundred men in that fighting line, and knowing 
what we do of the New Hampshire and Connecticut men, 
it is easy to complete the enumeration. No notice we have 
ever seen, no light we can gain, make it appear that the 
forces at the redoubt were materially increased during this 
pause in the battle. The British were bringing over, even 
from Boston, fresh troops, but those regiments on the 



^T. 57.] The Battle. 197 

American side which had kept clear of danger up to this 
time, still managed by one excuse and another to hold 
themselves in a great measure aloof. It would not do to 
reinforce the redoubt from the fence line. Hitherto that 
. had been the chief object of attack, and what the next move 
of the British would be could not then be told. 

Let us try at this point to fathom the thoughts of the 
British officers, especially Howe, causing him materially to 
change his plan of attack. Did he not say within himself, 
We began this battle under the strong impression that the 
redoubt itself would be very hard to carry, but the fence 
line would be easily broken. We have made two advances 
along the whole line under this impression, and it has been 
a very costly operation. I never could persuade my men to 
try that experiment over again. Besides, we have felt the 
fire of the enemy twice along the whole battle line, and to 
our surprise have found that the parts of their line.which 
we supposed to be the weakest are the strongest, and those 
which we supposed to be the strongest are the weakest. 
We will leave the fence and push now for the redoubt. It 
must, we think, be apparent to all, that something like this 
train of thought went through his mind. The battle began 
with the intention of flanking the redoubt by breaking the 
fence line. It ended by flanking the fence line by carrying 
the redoubt. The New Hampshire and Connecticut men, 
with such Massachusetts men as were with them, were not 
beaten that day ; they were simply flanked. The weakness, 
inefficiency and disorders of that day were in connection 
with the Massachusetts troops. Yet we will never accuse 
Colonel Prescott of a want of personal courage and per- 
sonal faithfulness according to the measure of his military 
ability. Nor have we any but words of high honor and 
praise for those Massachusetts men of the original detach- 
ment, who stayed by, and did their duty faithfully to the 



198 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775- 

end.* The test they passed through was extremely trying, 
for they had seen at least half of their original number 
(Prescott makes it more) drop off by desertions, and they 
knew that there were multitudes of their Massachusetts 
brethren near at hand, who could, but would not, come to 
their relief. The men of Prescott's, Frye's and Bridge's 
regiments who stayed to the last, deserve to be crowned as 
heroes ; but it was shameful that they were so left by their 
companions, and equally shameful that they were not rein- 
forced. 

General Ward is more to be blamed for this than Colonel 
Prescott ; and if the one local commander, who did not 
hold his line, were not pushed upon the modern public as 
the great military hero and leader of that day, we should 
feel inclined to sympathize with him, to pity and excuse 
him. But we cannot hide the historical fact that the 
weaknesses and disorders of that action circled around that 
portion of the battle line where he was the central iigure. 
Heroic as he personally was, and faithful to the last, he 
showed himself lacking in some of the prime qualities of a 
military commander. It is too much to ask that he, in 
spite of these things, should be exalted into the chief man 
of all, to gratify any one's private wishes. Brought down 
to the basis of hard and stubborn facts, the case stands 
thus : Eleven hundred men from New Hampshire and 
Connecticut, with a few Massachusetts men added, had 
successfully kept a slight and hastily-built line of defences 
of fifteen hundred feet in length, against two desperate at- 
tacks of the British army, and had rolled that army back 
with great slaughter. Then came a crisis when Massachu- 

* " Previous to that [the arrival of Stark's regiment] there were many who 
left the ground at the fort, particularly at the landing of the British troops ; 
but after the commencement of the battle with small arms, I know of no man 
leaving his post until the order to retreat was given by Colonel Prescott." — 
Letter of Abel Parker, in Prescott's regiment. 



JEt. 57.] T/ie Battle, 199 

setts, with two thousand men, more or less, was called upon 
to defend in like manner a strongly-built line of about four 
hundred and fifty feet in length. If she could defend that 
for fifteen minutes, the day would be ours. She failed, and 
the British broke through. Colonel Prescott and the men 
of his original command did all they could under the circum- 
stances. We see no real evidence that he was reinforced, 
except by individuals. It would appear that he had with 
him in that final resistance about four hundred men, of 
whom one hundred and sixty were killed or wounded. We 
have searched in vain to find satisfactory evidence that any 
Massachusetts regiment marched into that redoubt to his 
help. If the anecdote already given is authentic, as to 
what took place at Charlestown Neck after the battle, be- 
tween Prescott and Putnam, it would seem quite conclusive, 
as showing that Prescott was not reinforced. Putnam tried 
hard enough to reinforce him, but as he told Prescott, " I 
could not make the dogs go," The " Prescott Memorial " 
says expressly, " Nor was any reinforcement sent." 

Looking upon the killed and wounded on the American 
side, one might naturally enough think, as before suggested, 
that the Massachusetts men did the hardest part of the 
fighting ; but the law which underlies that list of casualties 
has already been noticed. The British broke through where 
the Massachusetts men guarded the line ; and when that 
wrathful current was once in motion, it was terrific in its 
sweep. It dealt out destruction without mercy. Massa- 
chusetts lost in the battle one hundred and five killed, and 
one hundred and seventy-five wounded ; New Hampshire, 
twenty killed, and sixty-six wounded ; Connecticut, fifteen 
killed, and thirty wounded. But of the Massachusetts 
losses, a large proportion occurred within the space of ten 
or fifteen minutes at the very close of the battle, and 
then because the redoubt was not held. 



200 Life of Israel Putnam. [i77S- 

Gage admitted a loss of one thousand and fifty-four on 
his side, while he claimed that the men in the battle on the 
British side made "a body of something above two thou- 
sand men;" in other words, taking his report according to 
the apparent sense of the language, the killed and wounded 
made about half the whole force employed. Lieutenant 
Clarke, a British officer, speaks of the marvellous losses 
of the British that day. He says, " From calculations of 
most pitched battles, the proportion of the number of 
killed and wounded is only every eighth man." In all 
her long wars, reaching over hundreds of years, England 
hardly ever fought a battle in which she lost so large a 
portion of the men engaged.* But we do not accept 
General Gage's estimate, either of the men employed or 
the losses. The British probably had not less than from 
three to four thousand men on the ground, and the Ameri- 
cans estimated the British loss at one thousand five hun- 
dred. Their men were far away from home, and it was 
easy to put in false estimates ; but there could be no such 
deceptions on our side. The men who were killed and 
wounded all had their homes not far away, and doubtless 
every man of them was noted and enumerated. If the 
British could only have been repulsed on the third attack, 
our loss would have been a comparatively trifling one, 

* Thaddeus Burr to General Wooster. — " General Howe says you may talk 
of your Mindcns and Fontenoys, but he never saw or heard of such carnage 
in so short a time." 

General Greene to yacob Green. — " The Welsh fusileers, the finest regi- 
ment in the English establishment, is ruined. There are but one Captain and 
eleven privates left in the regiment." 

General Greene put that case too strongly, but the destruction in this regi- 
ment was frightful, by many accounts. 

" Such a slaughter was perhaps never before made upon British troops in 
the space of about an hour, during which the heat of the engagement lasted, 
by about fifteen hundred men, which were the most that were at any time 
engaged on the American side." — Account of Committee of Safety. 



JET. 57.] Tke Battle. 201 

while theirs would have been greater than it was. They 
would not have been likely to make a fourth attempt. 

There were some incidents of special interest in the 
course of the battle, little episodes of a strange and half- 
romantic character, that might be related, of which we take 
a single one. Lieutenant Clarke, from the British point of 
view, tells the following story : 

" Before the intrenchments were forced, a man whom the 
Americans called a marksman, or rifleman, was seen standing 
upon something, near three feet higher than the rest of the 
troops, as their hats were not visible. This man had no sooner 
discharged one musket than another was handed to him, and 
continued firing in that manner for ten or twelve minutes. And 
in that small space of time, by their handing to him fresh-loaded 
muskets, it is supposed that he could not kill or wound less than 
twenty officers, for it was at them particularly that he directed 
his aim, as was afterwards confirmed by the prisoners. But he 
soon paid his tribute, for upon being noticed he was killed by 
the grenadiers of the Royal Welsh fusileers." 

But we cannot close this account of the battle without 
describing more fully what took place at the very last. 
And we purposely take Mr. Frothingham for our authority. 
We might bring other witnesses, but we are entirely satis- 
fied with his statement. He says (" Siege of Boston," p. 
152), "The whole body of Americans were now in full 
retreat, the greater part over the top of Bunker Hill. The 
brow of Bunker Hill was a place of great slaughter. Gen- 
eral Putnam here rode to the rear of the retreating troops, 
and regardless of the balls flying about him, with his sword 
drawn, and still undaunted in his bearing, urged them to 
renew the fight in the unfinished works. ' Make a stand 
here,' he exclaimed; 'we can stop them yet! In God's 
name, form, and give them one shot more ! ' It was here 



202 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775- 

that he stood by an artillery piece until the enemy's bayo- 
nets were almost upon him." 

Now let us remember that these troops which Putnam 
was thus addressing were largely, if not entirely, that routed 
mass in and about the redoubt, Massachusetts troops, to 
whom, just before, Prescott (feeling that the redoubt was 
lost) had given the order to retreat. As soon as possible 
after that rush began, Putnam hastens to put himself behind 
this flying column, — between it and the British troops, — 
and assuming the command from that post of greatest dan- 
ger, calls upon the fugitives to stop. He reverses, on the 
spot, the order which Prescott had just given. He takes 
possession in a military way of the very men whom Pres- 
cott had just had under his subordinate command. 

And what Putnam did here, he might just as naturally have 
done anywhere along that whole line. If the break had 
occurred among the New Hampshire men, and Stark or 
Reed had sounded a retreat, Putnam, as commander over 
the whole field, would have seen it, just as he saw this giv- 
ing way at the redoubt. In that case he would doubtless 
have rushed to that point, and have attempted to do the same 
things he was doing here. He was exercising, in other 
words, the functions of a common commander, and how any 
one can pen such a passage as we have just quoted, and 
many others of the same general import, and not see in 
General Putnam something more than a mere assistant of 
Colonel Prescott, passes our comprehension. Besides, what 
folly once to think of Colonel Prescott as the commander 
on that broad field, while he has been shut up in the re- 
doubt and does not even know what has been happening 
away from that fortress! Mr, Frothingham says (p. 166), 
" Colonel Prescott was left in uncontrolled possession of 
his post. Nor is there any proof that he gave an order at 
the rail fence or on Bunker Hill." To that statement no 



JET.S7-] The Battle. 203 

objection need be made, but the chief commander does not 
make his appearance in it.* Mr. Frothingham goes on to 
say, " He remained at the redoubt, and there fought the 
battle with such coolness, bravery and discretion as to win 
the unbounded applause of his contemporaries." The stu- 
dent of history will probably search the records of 1775 in 
vain to find evidence such as will fairly and naturally sus- 
tain that last assertion. We have turned over within the 
past year a great many books and records bearing upon this 
period and upon this battle, and we do not find this " un- 
bounded applause of his contemporaries." The facts given 
in Chapter VI. have a different complexion. Nay, the only 
way in which any true glory can be saved for Prescott out 
of this battle, is by regarding him simply as a commander of 
the redoubt, who was faithful and heroic to his trust, who 
stayed to the last and did all he could with his military ex- 
perience and ability. We are as willing as any one to 
make him a hero, if the case can be put reasonably ; but 
the moment he is exalted as the commanding head over 
that field, his deficiencies of action are so glaring, his ig- 
norance of details is so amazing, that he is only covered 
with disgrace in being made to occupy such a position. 

Of the killed and wounded on our side we have taken our 
summary from Mr. Frothingham's account. We have no 

* In the April number of the " North American Review " for 1826 (p. 
466), we find a notice of Colonel Swett's writings. He had brought forward 
a witness who testified to Putnam's presence in the redoubt ; upon which the 
editor remarks, — 

" This was a little before the battle ; during the battle the distinguished 
hero and patriot, Colonel Prescott, had the entire and uncontrolled command 
in the redoubt." 

That is a perfectly rational and safe position to take. Prescott was placed 
there to do just that, and no claim is made that Putnam gave orders within 
the redoubt during the action. But he overlooked it, and watched its fortunes 
with intense interest till the break came, and then he speedily appeared on 
the scene. 



204 Lif^ ^f Israel Putnam. [1775- 

doubt that he sifted all the evidence carefully, and has given 
the list as accurately as it can be made. But it may interest 
the reader to see other computations, not differing largely 
from his, but showing slight variations. We give first Mr. 
Frothingham's figures, as distributed among the different 
military bodies. 

The following list of killed and wounded is taken from 
the " Siege of Boston," p. 193 : 

Killed. Wounded. 

Prescott's regiment 42 28 

Bridge's regiment 15 29 

Frye's regiment 15 31 

Brewer's regiment 7 11 

Little's regiment 7 23 

Gardner's regiment 6 7 

Nixon's regiment 3 10 

Woodbridge's regiment i 5 

Doolittle's regiment o 9 

Gridley's regiment o 4 

Ward's regiment i 6 

Scammons's regiment o 2 

Gerrish's regiment 3 2 

Whitcomb's regiment 5 8 

Stark's regiment 15 45 

Reed's regiment 5 21 

Putnam's and Coit's regiment 11 26 

Chester's company 4 4 

Killed, 140; wounded, 271 ; captured, 30; making a total of 
441. 

From Force's " American Archives " (4th Series, Vol. II. p. 
1628), we take this statement. No date is given with the docu- 
ment, but surrounding ones would place it July 9th or loth, 1775. 

Killed and Missing. Wounded. 

Colonel Frye's regiment 14 38 

Colonel Little's regiment 7 23 

Colonel Brewer's regiment 12 22 



^T. 57.] The Battle. 205 

Killed and Missing, Wounded. 

Colonel Gridley's regiment o 4 

Colonel Stark's regiment 15 45 

Colonel Woodbridge's regiment . . . . o 5 

Colonel Scammons's regiment o 2 

Colonel Bridge's regiment 17 25 

Colonel Whitcomb's regiment 7 8 

General Ward's regiment i 6 

Colonel Gerrish's regiment 3 5 

Colonel Reed's (Reid's) regiment ... 4 29 

Colonel Prescott's regiment 43 46 

Colonel Doolittle's regiment 6 9 

Colonel Gardner's regiment o 7 

Colonel Patterson's regiment o i 

Colonel Nixon's regiment 3 o 

Connecticut 13 26 

Total, killed and missing, 145 ; wounded, 301 ; making a 

total of 446. 

The record says 304 wounded, but simple addition gives 301. 
Ward's orderly book, as quoted by Mr. Frothingham, makes, 

killed, 115 j wounded, 305 ; captured, 30 3 total, 450. 

The diary of Mr. Haskell, from which some quotations 
will be made in the next chapter, gives, killed, 138 ; wounded, 
292 ; total, 430. 

The six killed in Gardner's regiment, as reported in Mr. 
Frothingham's list, stand connected with Doolittle's regi- 
ment in the " Archives." In Reed's New Hampshire regi- 
ment, Mr, Frothingham gives five killed, the "Archives" 
four. By Mr. Frothingham, Connecticut had fifteen killed, 
and thirty wounded. By the "Archives," thirteen killed, 
and twenty-six wounded, and there are other slight varia- 
tions. In Ward's orderly book the wounded are more numer- 
ous and the killed less in number than in the other accounts. 
Doubtless quite a number entered by him as " wounded " 
soon died of their wounds, and their names were carried 



2o6 Life of Israel Putnam. [i775- 

over to the list of the killed. But the four statements 
above given do not differ greatly in the total results. 

One general fact already mentioned about the killed and 
wounded should not be forgotten. Probably no regiment 
that went over to Bunker Hill in that early afternoon and 
back again, escaped without having some of their men killed 
and wounded. Stark's Major, the heroic McClary, was 
killed here. The fact that a regiment reported a considera- 
ble number of casualties, was no sure sign in itself that it 
had actually taken any part whatever in the battle proper, 
though we do not doubt that several of the Massachusetts 
regiments like Little's, Gardner's, Brewer's, Nixon's, Whit- 
comb's, etc., did go over the top of Bunker Hill and down to- 
ward the redoubt, and so brought themselves into that storm 
of missiles already described. But that any one of these regi- 
ments, in a body, went fully to the front, where their own 
guns could materially harm the British, we doubt. Indi- 
viduals went, and some companies apparently, but those 
who halted and retreated even out of these regiments, were 
vastly more numerous than those who went forward to 
fight. There were several other regiments that kept them- 
selves in a remarkably safe condition, regarded as men sup- 
posed to have fought at Bunker Hill. There were five 
Massachusetts regiments, the total of whose accidents are 
summed up in two killed and twenty-six wounded. 



CHAPTER X. 

WHO LED THE ARMY FROM THE FIELD ? 

Condition of a defeated Army. — What became of the American Army after 
the Battle. — Prescott goes to Cambridge. — Fortifications on Prospect 
Hill. — Daniel Putnam and Mrs. Inman. — Diary of Mr. Haskell. 

AN army is not annihilated when it is defeated. It is to 
be carefully guarded and kept for future use. And 
yet there is no time when the powers and capacities of a 
military leader are more thoroughly tested than immediately 
after a defeat. The first question that arises is, how to 
conduct these soldiers securely out from the dangers that 
press immediately upon them. And when that is accom- 
plished, other cares arise. Here is a body of men, weary 
with watching, toil and conflict, chagrined and disappointed 
in their hopes, smarting under wounds that are not severe 
enough to consign them to the hospital, mourning for com- 
rades that have fallen by their side, the familiar faces of 
the drill, the tent, the mess-room : how shall these men be 
lifted over these hours of despondency ? A military com- 
mander often reveals his greatest and noblest qualities in 
such times as these. 

There is one clear and well-attested historical fact which 
has never apparently been brought to bear much upon the 
questions now before us ; but which, when set in its true 
relations, would of itself, standing alone, show with suffi- 
cient clearness who was the chief field officer of the forces 
who fought the battle of Bunker Hill. No one can know 
all the details respecting the movement of those troops 

207 



2o8 Life of Israel Putnam. [i775- 

that Saturday evening. Most of the Massachusetts regi- 
ments, it is Hkely, were led off in sections by their regi- 
mental officers, and taken back to their respective encamp- 
ments. Some of them had not been near enough to the 
real battle to receive any damage from it, and such casual- 
ties as had happened were received in the tumults of the 
crowd, or by missiles thrown from the British batteries 
across the neck. Others of them had been nearer and 
had borne losses. Such of those three regiments first de- 
tailed as had remained, and fought the battle through, were 
badly cut up. 

But who identified himself with this defeated army, and 
took care of it and kept with it ? Prescott certainly did not. 
He at once separated himself from it and went back to 
Cambridge, apparently not even in connection with the re- 
mains of his own regiment, though he may have marched 
in their company. But such descriptions as we have, make 
it appear that he went as an individual and not in command 
of, or in connection with, any military body or bodies what- 
ever.* Colonel Swett, in his " History of the Battle of 
Bunker Hill " (p. 49), gives the following graphic descrip- 
tion of Prescott' s movements that night. He says, " Pres- 
cott repaired to Cambridge, furious as a lion driven from 
his lair, foaming with indignation at the want of support 

* In the " Prescott Memorial " the story is told how, as Prescott was re- 
turning to Cambridge that night, he went into an inn, where some soldiers 
had just had a bowl of punch mixed. Seeing him they naturally passed the 
bowl to him to take the first drink. Just as the cup reached his hands, a can- 
non ball came ploughing its way through the house, whereat the men were so 
frightened that they ran away with all haste. Prescott remained, cool and 
collected, and as there was no one else to drink with him, he had the punch 
to himself. This cool personal courage Prescott exhibited in a high degree, 
through the whole expedition. He never ran from that redoubt, though 
many of his men did. There had been a tremendous strain upon his nerves 
from the moment the British ships began their cannonading in the morning. 
But personally he never flinched. 



^T. 57.] Who Led the Army from the Field ? 209 

when victory was in his grasp, — a victory dearly purchased 
with the precious blood of his soldiers, family and friends." 
We do not care how fierce the rhetoric was with which he 
plied General Ward. He deserved it all. But in these very 
complaints we have the evidence of what we have all along 
claimed, that Ward was shamefully remiss in duty, and that 
he (Prescott) was not reinforced. 

Mr. Frothingham, in the " Siege of Boston " (p. 153), gives 
us a still clearer and more detailed picture. He says, 
" Colonel Prescott, indignant at the absence of support 
when victory was within his grasp, repaired to headquarters, 
reported the issue of the battle, already too well known, 
and received the thanks of the commander-in-chief.* He 
found General Ward under great apprehensions lest the 
enemy, encouraged by success, should advance on Cam- 
bridge, where he had neither disciplined troops nor an ade- 
quate supply of ammunition to receive him. Colonel Pres- 
cott, however, assured him that the confidence of the Brit- 
ish would not be increased by the result of the battle." 

This was all right and proper so long as we regard Pres- 
cott as the local and subordinate commander of that re- 
doubt. He was nominated and appointed for that particu- 
lar duty. He had done all he could personally, and here 
was the result. His task was ended, and he might go back 
to Cambridge alone, or in company with the troops march- 
ing to their quarters, and no fault is to be found with him. 

But if he had been chief commander on that field, and 
left the army in this way, his conduct would have been 
strange and inexcusable. General Putnam certainly did 
not go to Cambridge that night. He kept with the men 

* " The thanks of the commander-in-chief ! " that is one of those neat and 
decorous arrangements of words which helps to dress a paragraph, but the 
historical facts which support it are of the minus quantity. The very next 
sentence will show General Ward in too great a state of perturbation to be 
paying formal thanks to anybody. 

14 



210 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775. 

who had done the chief portion of the fighting. He led 
them across the neck to what is now Somerville, and at 
once began intrenchments on Winter and Prospect Hills. 
Mr, Frothingham, on the same page with the last quota- 
tion, gives us these facts plainly. He says, " The Ameri- 
cans at Winter and Prospect Hills lay on their arms while 
the British, reinforced by additional troops from Boston, 
threw up during the night a line of breastwork on the 
northern side of Bunker Hill." 

The Americans, in this passage, represent that portion 
of the American army that had fought the battle. How 
many Massachusetts men were with them that night we do 
not know, but it is quite certain the New Hampshire and 
Connecticut men were there, and the commander in the 
battle was there with them. No one seems to have any 
question about these acts of General Putnam. Even those 
who have made him a kind of mysterious and half-mythical 
personage during the battle of Saturday, hardly knowing 
where he was or what he was about, some keeping him very 
still and quiet in one place, and others making him the 
very embodiment of perpetual motion, these differing writ- 
ers appear to have no difficulty in locating him with the 
American army on Saturday night, over at Prospect and 
Winter Hills. What a strange and curious man he must 
have been to have rushed in at the very last moment to 
snatch that defeated army out of the hands of its rightful 
commander ! What a desirable moment that was to come 
into such a possession ! How eagerly most men covet the 
glories of leadership under such conditions ! 

There can be no doubt (for we have many witnesses) 
that he spent that night with this discomfited army, and 
that Prescott did not. We have his own express statement 
on this point, made to the Committee of Safety not long 
after, at a time when he had the burden of some grievances 



^T. 57-] Who Led the Army from the 'Field? 211 

on his mind. He says, " Pray, did not I take possession of 
Prospect Hill the very night after the fight on Bunker Hill 
without having any orders from any person ? And was not 
I the only general officer that tarried there ? " There was 
no time to consult or wait for orders. He had to take the 
responsibility and do the best he could. And the very lan- 
guage he uses implies that what he did was generally ac- 
knowledged to have been wisely and well done, — an impor- 
tant step taken. 

Daniel Putnam found him at Prospect Hill the next 
morning, about 10 o'clock. But before allowing him to tell 
what his father was doing and how he looked, there is a 
little story about this Daniel Putnam himself, which will 
help to bring freshly before us the scenes and events con- 
nected with this famous action. 

He wanted to go to the battle ; begged hard to be per- 
mitted to go. His older brother was going, and he himself 
would be sixteen years old the next November. But his 
father would not hear to it, told him he must go and stay 
with Mrs. Inman and make himself useful. This Mrs. In- 
man and her nieces lived in the house * which gave the 

* It happened by a somewhat curious coincidence, that on the very day 
while we were writing these words, a local celebration was going on in Cam- 
bridge on the occasion of the dedication of Inman Square. We knew noth- 
ing of it until we saw the report in the next morning's paper. From the his- 
torical address delivered by Mr. C. M. Hovey, as reported in the Boston 
" Daily Advertiser " of February 4th, 1876, we cut the following passage, which 
will very clearly explain the circumstances of this house and farm, and give us 
a glimpse of their surroundings in 1775 : 

"In 1775 the principal family in Carabridgeport was the Inman family. 
There belonged to this estate about one hundred and eighty acres of land, 
which was described as arable pasture and woodland. It comprised nearly 
one-half of what is now the Port. The house, near the corner of Main and 
Inman Streets, was approached from Milk Row, now in Somerville, by a pleas- 
ant lane, part of which was identical with the present Inman Street. Ralph 
Inman died in 178S, and by his direction the land was sold in 1802 for the 
benefit of his heirs. It brought ten dollars an acre. Until 1793, when West 



212 Life of Israel Ptitnain. [1775- 

name to General Putnam's headquarters, in what is now 
Cambridgeport, and one of the present streets of Cam- 
bridgeport near this locaUty bears this name. Mr. Inman 
was a Tory, and feeling quite uncomfortable where so many 
American soldiers were about him, had himself gone into 
Boston to share the protection of the King's troops. Mrs. 
Inman and her nieces, who lived with her, had applied to 
General Putnam for protection, and he had set a guard to 
keep her premises from harm. General Putnam told Daniel 
he must go and stay at Mrs. Inman's house during this 
Bunker Hill business, and make himself as helpful to 
her as possible. He felt a little as David did when his 
elder brothers had gone to fight the Philistines, and he 
was left with the sheep ; but he obeyed, for some one has 
well said of him that he dared do anything but disobey 
his father. 

On Saturday night, when the news reached Cambridge 
that the Americans had been compelled to retreat, Mrs. 
Inman, like others, fearing that the British would follow, 
and she should find herself in the very path of the flying 
and pursuing troops, determined to leave her house, with 
such valuables as she could carry, and take refuge with 
some friends at a place called Brush Hill. Putnam assist- 
ed in this hasty removal. They did not reach their des- 
tination till nearly midnight, but on the way young 
Putnam's mind was greatly relieved from its load of press- 
ing anxiety by hearing that his father was safe. The 
next morning was Sunday. As soon as he could gain 

Boston bridge was built, there was no way of reaching the estate except 
through Charlestown. In 1809 Craigie's bridge was also built. In 1818 the 
land lying between the college grounds on the west, Broadway on the south, 
Prospect Street on the east, Cambridge and Hampshire Streets on the north, 
was laid out as a racing park and used for that purpose for some years. When 
it was given up, the land returned to bushes and trees again, till about 1840, 
when population began to approach it." 



iET. 57-1 Who Led the Army from the Field f 213 

permission he went in search of his father. He tells the 
story thus : 

" I was not long in retracing my steps of the last night back to 
Cambridge. General Putnam was not at his quarters ; he had 
been there it was said for a few minutes only, and with fresh men 
was then fortifying Prospect Hill. There I found him about 
10 o'clock on the morning of June i8th, dashing about among 
the workmen, throwing up intrenchments, and often placing a sod 
with his own hands. He wore the same clothes he had on when 
I left him thirty-eight hours before, and affirmed he had never 
put them off or washed himself since ; and we might well believe 
him, for the aspect of all bore evidence that he spoke the truth." 

General Putnam not only went to Prospect Hill that 
night, but he stayed there. It was a vital point to occupy. 
It controlled the path along which the British would have 
to move, if they attempted to march by the Charlestown 
road to Cambridge. They never attempted to march along 
that road. They had their fortifications on Bunker Hill, 
but they did not venture across the neck. Additional 
troops were detailed to be under Putnam's special com- 
mand, and to help build his fortifications. But he went 
there directly from Bunker Hill and led the army there, as 
one entrusted with its destinies. In all this he is seen to 
have been their commander-in-chief, and Prescott is seen 
not to have been their commander-in-chief. We hold that 
the evidence to be derived from these circumstances imme- 
diately following the battle, is as vital as any that can be 
adduced from any quarter. The facts, too, seem to be 
admitted by all parties, though some have not stopped long 
enough to see the effect of the admission. 

Through the kindness of Mr. A. W. Haskell of Boston, 
we have before us a neat and well kept diary, the work of 
his father, Caleb Haskell, who was a soldier at the battle of 
Bunker Hill in Colonel Little's regiment. A brief refer- 



214 Life of Israel Putnam. [i77S- 

ence has already been made to this diary. Mr. Haskell 
was from Newburyport. This record will show us, in a 
natural and life-like manner, how those days in June, 1775, 
were passing. 

" jfune 77, Saturday. — This day begins with the noise of can- 
non from the ships firing at our men intrenching on Bunker 
Hill. The firing continues all the forenoon of the day, but one 
man killed. We were alarmed at Cambridge, heard that the 
enemy were landing in Charlestown. The army set out, we 
found the town in flames, and the regulars ascending the hill, 
the balls flying almost as thick as hailstones, from the ships and 
floating batteries and Copp's Hill and Beacon Hill in Boston, 
and the ground covered with the wounded and dead. Our peo- 
ple stood the fire some time, until the enemy had almost sur- 
rounded us and cut off our retreat. We were obliged to quit the 
ground and retreat as fast as possible. In this engagement we 
lost the ground and the heroic General Warren. We had one 
hundred and thirty-eight killed and two hundred and ninety-two 
wounded. The loss on the enemy's side was ninety-two com- 
missioners ; one hundred and two sergeants ; one hundred cor- 
porals, and seven hundred privates. Total loss, nine hundred 
and ninety-four. [This was probably an early report of British 
losses.] 

" June 18, Sunday. — Early this morning were employed in 
making cartridges and getting in readiness for another battle. 
A large reinforcement came in from the country. At noon were 
alarmed again, marched to Prospect Hill, which we were fortify- 
ing, were ordered to halt and wait for orders from the General,* 
marched back again, had orders to hold ourselves in readiness 
to march at the first notice. The enemy keep a continual firing 
upon us at Prospect Hill, which we are fortifying. At 9 o'clock 
in the evening received orders to go down to the hill, march to 
headquarters, received new orders to go back to our quarters and 
hold ourselves in readiness. 

" yune jg, Monday. — The day comes on with noise of can- 

* The General thus referred to was doubtless Putnam. 



-<Et. 57-] Who Led the Army from the Field? 215 

non from Bunker Hill, and floating batteries discharged at us on 
Prospect Hill, which continues all day. The enemy set the 
upper end of Charlestown on fire. We mounted picket guard. 

" yune 20, Tuesday. — On guard this morning, we passed 
muster in the afternoon, in the evening were relieved from 
guard 

" yune2j, Friday. — This day were ordered to Prospect Hill, 
where we are stationed, went down, pitched our tents, went to 
intrenching 

" yuly 2, Sunday. — This day the Honorable George Wash- 
ington, Esq., commander-in-chief of the united forces in America, 
arrived at Cambridge. This afternoon had rain." 

In all these entries after the first, this soldier represent- 
ing Colonel Little's regiment is circling about Putnam at 
Prospect Hill. The owner of the diary recollects an anec- 
dote w^hich his father loved to tell of General Putnam. 
Coming around one day to see how the works were getting 
on, he found some men that evidently had not bestowed 
much labor upon their section since he was last there. 

" To what regiment do you belong .? " said the General. 

" To Colonel Doolittle's," was the reply. 

" Doo-little .? do nothing at all ! " was the prompt re- 
joinder. 

The anecdote shows that both Colonel Little's and Col- 
onel Doolittle's regiments were there, and there were, as 
the records show, several other Massachusetts regiments 
intrenching under Putnam's orders. 



CHAPTER XI. 

TESTIMONY OF BUNKER HILL LITERATURE AND ART. 



Art. — Three Pictures. — Mr. Dawson. — Early Notices of the Battle, American 
and English. — General Dearborn and the Controversy of 1818. — What 
was its Import ? — " Siege of Boston." — Frothingham. — Bancroft. — Irving. 
— The Question of To-day a new and modern one. — Mr. Frothingham's 
later Pupils. 

IN this chapter, which will necessarily be long, we propose 
to bring together and set in order a mass of evidence 
which will certainly help to determine who was the com- 
mander at Bunker Hill, 

We will begin with Art. 

The first picture, so far as we know (and without much 
doubt it was the very first), designed to represent to the 
eye the battle of Bunker Hill was a rude sketch published 
in Philadelphia in the summer of 1775. This picture was 
variously used in the newspapers at the time of the late 
Bunker Hill Centennial. It may be found in the " Boston 
Herald" for June 17th, 1875, in connection with the able 
article prepared for that paper, from the pen of W. W. 
Wheildon, Esq., of Concord, and the brief history of the 
picture itself is there given in these words : " The larger 
map (or picture) was printed in the ' Pennsylvania Maga- 
zine ' in July, 1775, and the original, as may be imagined, 
was crude in form, conception and execution. So the fac 
simile is not put forward as the copy of the work of an 
artist." 

It may be found also in the " Bunker Hill Times," and 
in several other papers. But the most curious and un- 
216 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 217 

looked-for place where it may be found is in the small vol- 
ume prepared by Mr. Frothingham for circulation during 
the centennial year of the battle, which volume is a valu- 
able compendium, chiefly made from his larger work. By 
what fortune this picture found its way into that little book, 
we have never inquired, but have always been curious to 
know ; for the picture is in the most positive and direct an- 
tagonism with the theory of the book itself. 

If the questions be asked. Why should a place so far off as 
Philadelphia be the first to issue a picture .■' and what clear 
information could the people there have at that time .-' the 
answer is ready and obvious. The Continental Congress 
was sitting at Philadelphia, and every item of information 
of any importance to the common cause was carried there 
as soon as the express riders could convey it. Ten days 
after the battle, as sure and accurate information might 
be gained in Philadelphia, as to the various details of the 
action, as almost anywhere else in all the thirteen colonies. 
Boston was in no condition then to indulge in pictorial 
art. The town was occupied with British troops. In that 
American camp about the town there was one man, at 
least, who was equal to the task of producing such a pic- 
ture, and a much better one ; but he, with all the rest of 
those officers and men, was occupied with very different 
cares. Philadelphia was as natural a place as any in the 
land for such a picture to appear, and there it was published 
in July, 1775. This picture is peculiarly strong in its tes- 
timony. It is accompanied by a key, pointing out the fea- 
tures which are most important to be noticed. There are 
nine points in the picture to which the eye is directed. 
They are these : " (i) Boston ; (2) Charlestown ; (3) Breed's 
Hill ; (4) Provincial Breastwork ; (5) Retreating Regulars ; 
(6) Frigate ; (7) Somerset ; (8) Broken officer ; (9) General 
Putnam." And there the sturdy old General is, on his 



2i8 Life of Israel Putnam. 

white horse, with his sword drawn, his steed on a half-leap, 
as in the act of cantering, the only person mentioned by 
name, and the commander-in-chief as clearly and distinctly 
as the pictorial art, with words accompanying, can make 
him so. Prescott is nowhere named or indicated. Is it 
likely they were all wrong about that matter in Philadel- 
phia, in the summer of 1775, under the very droppings of 
the Continental Congress .<* 

The next picture which we notice was published in Lon- 
don in September, 1775. To understand why this picture 
should be published there, let it be remembered that there 
were many officers in the British army, some of them on 
this side the water at that time, and some on the other, 
who were intimately acquainted with Putnam, by long inter- 
course during the French War, and who loved him like a 
brother. No amount of writing can destroy the fact that 
Putnam was a man to be loved. He won the hearts of 
those about him to a most remarkable degree. Let it be 
still further borne in mind that there were great multitudes 
of men in England at that time, as we shall hereafter see, 
who were intensely indignant at the course the British gov- 
ernment was pursuing, whose sympathies were with us in 
all those trials, and who saw in that battle of Bunker Hill 
an outburst of provincial patriotism and courage that elic- 
ited their warmest approbation. There was, therefore, a 
natural demand, even in England, for a picture of the hero 
of Bunker Hill.* We know not how many copies of this 
picture are to be found in this country, but probably a 
goodly number. We know that Samuel Adams Drake, 
Esq., of Boston, has a copy. It was placed in the window 
of a book store in Bromfield Street, last summer, during the 
week of the centennial celebration, and was attentively 
studied by many a passer-by. We know that a copy of it 

* Appendix C. 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 219 

may be seen in Danvers, in the house already described, 
where General Putnam was born. We know that there is 
a copy of it hanging in the rooms of the Historical Society 
in Hartford, Connecticut. The picture bears the name of 
the artist, J. Wilkinson, and the name of the publisher, 
C. Shepherd (for the painting served as the basis for an 
engraving). This picture carries the following verbal in- 
scription : " Israel Putnam, Esq., Major-General of the Con- 
necticut forces, and commander-in-chief at the engagement 
on Bunker Hill near Boston, 17th June, 1775." This 
inscription is not technically correct, but on the point now 
before us its testimony is unequivocal. 

In these two pictures we have the American testimony 
on the one hand, and the British testimony on the other, 
both exactly concurring, uttered in the plainest manner, in 
the summer of 1775. And is there one particle of histori- 
cal evidence, that in those years nearest to the battle, when 
living men in great numbers knew the facts, any writer 
ever objected to those two pictures as bearing false wit- 
ness ,-' 

But we come now to a far more celebrated picture than 
either of these, copies of which have been multiplied till 
almost everybody is familiar with it. There was in that 
American army about Boston, in the spring and summer 
of 1775, a youth of only nineteen years, a graduate of 
Harvard College, at first an Adjutant in General Spencer's 
regiment at Roxbury, but when Washington arrived he 
was taken into his family as one of his Aids. This was 
Colonel John Trumbull, youngest son of Governor Jonathan 
Trumbull of Connecticut. He was of frail constitution, 
but of exquisite tastes and sensibilities, and notable for a 
nice sense of honor. No man in the American army could 
have any better opportunity than he for knowing exactly 
what went on in those months of May, June and July, 



220 Life of Israel Putnam. 

1775, For in the first place, his father (the only Gover- 
nor in the thirteen colonies on the side of the people 
against the crown) had in his hands the entire organiza- 
tion of the Connecticut troops, and every important fact 
with regard to the conduct of the officers and soldiers was 
brought to his immediate notice ; and any event so impor- 
tant as the battle of Bunker Hill would in after months 
and years be familiarly talked over by that fireside at Leba- 
non, Connecticut, But more than this. Though not in 
the battle, because Spencer's regiment did not partici- 
pate in it, yet from the hills of Roxbury he watched it in 
the distance, and was not whglly out of danger in so doing. 
The British that day sent their cannon shot over Roxbury 
Heights as well as over those of Charlestown. They 
wished of course to keep up the impression that Roxbury 
might be one point at which they were aiming, so that the 
American troops would not dare to move from the right 
wing to help their brethren at the centre. Trumbull saw 
one man killed that day by a cannon shot in Roxbury. It 
could not, of course, be otherwise than that he should hear 
the facts of Bunker Hill all minutely talked over in those 
days at General Spencer's headquarters. Then, early in 
July, he passed over to Cambridge and was domiciled in 
General Washington's family. At Washington's table, 
Putnam by invitation dined once a week, and Washington 
went once a week to dine at Putnam's headquarters. Col- 
onel Trumbull therefore, without question, heard all the 
details of the 17th of June freely talked over between 
those two men. Can we doubt after all this that he knew, 
if anybody knew, what took place on those Charlestown 
Pleights during the day of the battle } The next year 
Trumbull was appointed Adjutant-General. But his tastes 
were not for war or military oflfice. He was passionately 
devoted to art, and after a time he resigned his commission 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 221 

and went over to England, where in 1 780 he became a 
pupil of the celebrated painter Benjamin West, who, it will 
be remembered, was also an American, a native of Pennsyl- 
vania, though passing the larger portion of his life in Eng- 
land. Under his tuition Trumbull studied the art of paint- 
ing, and after he had acquired skill and independence, pro- 
jected and executed a series of paintings illustrating some 
of the battle scenes of the American Revolution. Of ail 
these pictures perhaps the favorite one alike with the artist 
and the public, has been the " Death of Warren " at Bun- 
ker Hill. All the other parts are made accessory to this 
central incident of Warren's death. But when an artist 
undertakes thus to give a battle scene, he will naturally 
group the chief figures to be represented according to his 
own fancy. He works upon a very small piece of canvas, 
and he cannot scatter the personages over a large territory, 
though as a matter of fact they might have been at some 
distance from each other at the time contemplated. No one, 
of course, supposes that the men shown in that picture stood 
in that exact attitude and relation at the moment of War- 
ren's death. That is the work of the artist's own imagina- 
tion. But back of these minor details, the law of historical 
truth will prevail, if the man who was commander-in-chief 
in the battle is so represented ; and the law of historical 
untruth will prevail, if the artist makes a man commander- 
in-chief who was not so. No matter, as we just said, whether 
that commander were exactly on that spot at that moment, 
or not. He might even have been in some distant part of 
the field. The artist is not trying to follow such details. 

Trumbull, in painting that picture, made General Israel 
Putnam the American commander. He did it, not because 
,he had any pet theory to maintain. There was no discus- 
sion on the subject. He did it naturally, as a thing of 
course, as a simple matter of fact, just as those who pro- 



222 Life of Israel Piitnam. 

duced the other two pictures, already named, had done. 
Any person, we care not who he may be, who would accuse 
such a man as Colonel John Trumbull of attempting to per- 
petrate a historical falsehood in painting that picture does 
not know the character of the man against whom he brings 
that charge. His opportunities for exact knowledge were 
certainly rare and peculiar. And perhaps the chief reason 
why this picture surpasses in interest some of his other 
historical paintings, was just because of his intimate ac- 
quaintance with the persons and the facts. He wrought 
with his heart as well as with his pencil.* 

But the men in these modern days who will have it that 
Colonel William Prescott was chief commander in the bat- 
tle desire very much to destroy the testimony of this pic- 
ture. Why they do not have an equal antipathy to the two 
others already named it is hard to see, except that this one 
is more widely known. Referring to Trumbull's painting. 
Dr. Ellis, in his " History," etc., says (p. 6"]), " The writer 
was also assured by Judge Prescott — indeed he has it in 
writing from his own pen — that Colonel John Trumbull, 
the painter, in i y^6, of the fancy piece of the ' Battle of Bun- 

* " Colonel John Trumbull attempted to depict the events of the Revolu- 
tion in a series of large historical tableaux, which are now chiefly valued for 
the faithful portraits they contain of the soldiers and statesmen of that time. 
His sketches and studies for these works show a vigor and grasp which are 
wanting in the larger canvases. His ' Death of Montgomery,' the ' Signing 
of the Declaration of Independence,' and the ' Battle of Bunker Hill,' and 
others of his important works, exhibit considerable skill in grouping and com- 
position, but it would have been better for his fame had nothing remained 
but the original sketches and portraits. His talent is displayed to greater 
advantage in the ' Trumbull Gallery ' at New Haven than in the National 
Capitol. An Aid-de-Camp to General Washington, in the early part of the 
Revolution, Colonel Trumbull enjo3'ed peculiar facilities for studying his 
character and features under the most varied circumstances, and his portrait 
of him, now in the gallery at New Haven, is full of soldierly spirit. By con- 
temporaries, to whom it recalled the leader of the American armies, it was pre- 
ferred to Stuart's." — S. S. Conant in "Harper's Monthly" for April, 1876, 
p. 701. 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 223 

ker Hill,' in which Putnam appears as the commander of 
the redoubt, at Judge Prescott's dinner table, expressed 
his sincere regret at the error he had committed, and his 
desire and purpose to rectify it ! " 

There is one little item here that needs a passing remark 
before we come to that which is of main interest. We do 
not understand that Trumbull makes Putnam the "com- 
mander of the redoubt." The scene is at the redoubt, 
because the death of Warren, which is the central idea 
of the picture, was there. But Trumbull would have ad- 
mitted what everybody, so far as we know, admits, that 
Prescott was the commander of the redoubt in the same 
sense that Stark was commander down by the shore of the 
Mystic, or as Knowlton was commander of the Connecticut 
men behind the rail fence, nearer to the fort 

But letting this pass for the present, we have long heard 
of this rumor, viz., that Trumbull expressed to Judge Pres- 
cott his regret at the error he had committed, and his pur- 
pose to amend it. We have always believed that the story, 
if traced, would be found springing from a very small germ. 
Colonel Trumbull was a strictly polite man, and under the 
circumstances might very naturally have expressed a re- 
gret if he had not duly honored Colonel Prescott in that 
picture. Whether a topic so intensely personal to both 
was a happy one to be introduced at Judge Prescott's table, 
when Trumbull was a guest there, would be open to con- 
sideration. 

But the artist lived on to the advanced age of eighty- 
seven, dying in 1843. He was buried from the house of 
Professor Silliman of New Haven, where for many years 
he had lived. (Professor Benjamin Silliman, the elder, 
married Colonel Trumbull's niece.) It must have been 
many years before his death that Colonel Trumbull made 
the promise (if he ever did make it) that he would rectify 



224 Life of Israel Putnam. 

his mistake. He probably was not expected to paint his 
picture over again, but to come out with some public state- 
ment or acknowledgement. Those who have known Colonel 
Trumbull would say that he was a man exceedingly apt to 
keep his word. His sense of personal honor was unusually 
high. And yet he seems at last to have died and made no 
sign, though he had had so many years in which to make 
it. This circumstance alone seems to render it doubtful 
if the rumor, in the form in which it has circulated, had 
any good foundation. We do not doubt there was a germ 
and starting-point for this story, but probably it has grown 
out of its true shape by transmission. The most natural 
place to go for exact information seemed to be to the family 
of Professor Silliman. The elder Professor Silliman has 
been dead for a number of years, but his son, the Professor 
Benjamin Silliman of the present, inherits the reminiscen- 
ces, the traditions, the writings, and many of the pictures 
of Colonel Trumbull. To him we looked for information. 
What he has furnished will be found more fully in the Ap- 
pendix.* But for our present purpose, it is sufficient to 
quote the following sentences : 

" For more than ten years I was almost daily in intimate com- 
munication with Colonel Trumbull, and hold in memory many 
vivid statements respecting the early events of our national his- 
tory. If he had ever said anything supporting the theory of a 
change of view on his part as to the parts borne by Putnam and 
Prescott at the battle of Bunker Hill, I should certainly remember 
it. He never said anything of the kind in my hearing, though 
he often dwelt in detail, and always with enthusiasm, upon the 
composition of his picture of the ' Death of Warren,' which he 
justly esteemed as on the whole the most remarkable of all his 
battle pieces. He was always strenuous on the authenticity of 
his records and the fidelity of his reputation, and explained the 

* Appendix D. 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 225 

unwearied pains he took to secure, in every possible case, authen- 
tic portraits. The only Americans in the Bunker Hill picture, 
of whom the portraits are marked by him as likenesses, are the 
heads of Warren and Putnam. The last he drew from the life, 
and I now own his original pencil sketch, from which the head 
in the picture was taken." * 

Colonel Trumbull, then, did not intend to make Putnam 
the "commander of the redoubt," and did not paint /n- 
inarily to make him anything, but in his grouping, as inci- 
dental to his main design, he made Putnam what he had to 
make him, in order to be true to history, viz., commander- 
in-chief on the general field. 

The painter introduces two incidents f in his verbal 
description of the battle, and one of them is also intro- 
duced into the painting itself. This is the attempt of 
Major Small to parry the thrust of the soldier who is about 
to plunge his bayonet into the dying hero, Warren. Upon 
this incident we will not dwell. In the other, it is stated 
that when the British forces came up the second time, and 
their front lines were terribly cut down by the American 
musketry, Putnam saw some muskets aimed directly at his 
old friend, Major Small. Springing forward, he exclaimed, 
"Don't kill that man, I love him like a brother," and so 
stopped the discharge of those particular muskets. Mr. 
Frothingham says, " These incidents wear too much the 
air of romance to be implicitly relied upon." But Colonel 
Trumbull claims that they are authentic, and that he had 

* " It is not with an array of names, with loose, incoherent, hearsay testi- 
mony, nor evidence of a nature purely negative, that an intelligent public can 
or will be satisfied on a point not affecting the character of one man only, but 
of many men and of the nation. The correctness of historical facts is felt to 
be important. If Mr. Trumbull's picture of this battle is erroneous and false, 
we ought to know it and to banish it from our parlors." — Hon. John Lowell, 
1818. 

t Appendix B. 

IS 



226 Life of Israel Putnam. 

them from Major Small himself. Concerning this last, which 
we have given more fully, it makes some difference whether 
it be implicitly relied upon or not. If it is true, then Put- 
nam at that moment was not far from the redoubt, and at 
any rate at the very forefront of the battle, when it would 
be just as convenient to have him over on the back side of 
the hill, out of the way of danger, and doing nothing but 
vainly urging forward the reinforcements. 

Turning over the voluminous pages of Force's " Ar- 
chives," the eye fell upon a letter which a certain John 
Stuart (probably belonging to the English army and sta- 
tioned at St. Augustine) wrote to Major Small. The open- 
ing of the letter is as follows : 

"St. Augustine, October 2, 1775. 

" Dear Sir : I was extremely glad to learn by our old friend, 
Captain Barker oi the i6th [regiment], who arrived here yester- 
day, that you was well when he left Boston. I congratulate you 
upon a very narrow escape where so many fell."* 

The words " where so many fell " prove that the sen- 
tence had reference to the battle. The words " a very 
narrow escape " would not have been naturally chosen if 
the writer was thinking of one who had simply come out 
alive and unharmed from the battle, as some two thousand 
other men had done. The language would certainly seem 
to point to something particular, some special deliverance. 
It is altogether natural to suppose that Captain Barker had 
just been telling Mr. Stuart how Major Small had been 
saved by Putnam's interposition, and so had " a very narrow 
escape." While no one can absolutely assert that this is 
the interpretation to be given, it is at least very highly 
probable. Mr. Frothingham ("Siege of Boston," p. 172) 
says, "That Major Small felt grateful for an interference 
at some time in his behalf is undoubtedly true. It might 
might have been the incident given on page 79." 

*" American Archives," 4th Series, Vol. IV. p. 317. 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 227 

Now, the incident related on page 79 is the following : 

" The late Dr. Prince of Salem used to relate, that as he was 
standing with a party of armed men at Charlestown Neck, a 
person enveloped in a cloak rode up on horseback, inquired the 
news and passed on, but he immediately put spur to his horse, 
and the animal started forward so suddenly as to cause the rider 
to raise his arms, throw up the cloak and thus reveal a uniform. 
The men instantly levelled their guns to fire, when Dr. Prince 
struck them up, exclaiming, ' Don't fire at him ! he is my friend 
Small, a fine fellow.' It was Major Small, an express from the 
army, who got safe into Boston." 

The reader will see at a glance that this anecdote does 
not meet the conditions of the letter we have quoted from 
Mr. Stuart. That language evidently belongs to the battle 
of Bunker Hill, and cannot apply to anything else. It looks 
as though Colonel Trumbull's testimony as to this incident 
would stand secure against all attempts to discredit it, and 
that General Putnam was near the redoubt, in the very 
midst of the conflict, when the British made their second 
assault. Added to all these proofs and suggestions is a 
circumstance mentioned by Daniel Putnam in his reply to 
General Dearborn, which to most readers will be convinc- 
ing and weighty. He says, " I shall make no comment on 
the first anecdote by Colonel Small, except that the circum- 
stances were related by General Putnam without any essen- 
tial alteration soon after the battle, and that there was an 
interview of the parties, on the lines between Prospect and 
Bunker Hills, at the request of Colonel Small, not long 
afterwards." 

We have, then, three pictures, prepared very soon after 
the battle, all pointing to General Putnam as the chief com- 
mander at Bunker Hill. Are there any ancient paintings 
or engravings that bear a like testimony in favor of Colonel 
Prescott "i 



228 Life of Israel Putnam. 

We turn now to the Literature of Bunker Hill, and strike 
a far more extended field. But it will not be wise to go 
over again the thousand and one testimonies and affidavits 
which constitute a part of this literature. All we can do 
is to make a rapid analysis of what has been accumulating 
for a hundred years. In the course of it we shall intro- 
duce at least one witness who, so far as we are aware, has 
never before spoken. 

In the review we are now about to make, it might seem 
to some an intended slight, and to others a sign of timidity, 
were we to take no notice of the remarkable theory respect- 
ing General Putnam advanced by Mr. Dawson in his fa- 
mous number of the "Historical Magazine" for June, 1868. 
We have no wish to neglect a writer who has performed 
such large and valuable services in gathering together the 
authorities on this topic, and whose study of the battle 
itself is usually so correct, and we certainly have no fear 
that should keep us from reporting the worst things he has 
written. The public shall have the full knowledge of his 
theory, so far as this volume is concerned. Mr. Dawson 
thinks Putnam was acting the part of a traitor in this 
battle, and trying to sell himself for British gold ; but the 
price he named was too high, and the bargain was not com- 
pleted. He speaks (p. 335) of a kind of double record 
which has come down to us through English and American 
channels, which "confirms the terrible suspicion of some- 
body's ' treachery,' * and fastens upon the same General 
Putnam a secret desire, about that time, to return to the 
peace of his sovereign, as well as an offer of terms for that 
purpose to the royal general-in-chief, and their qualified 
rejection." 

* Peter Brown's letter to his mother, June 25, 1775, quoted in " Historical 
Magazine," June, 1868, p. 396, as follows : 

" The danger we were in made us think there was Treachery, and that we 
were brot here to be all slain ; and I must and will venture to say, there was 
Treachery, Oversight or Presumption in the conduct of our officers." 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 229 

Again, in a note, after quoting a passage showing what 
hardships Putnam went through in the French War, and 
what wounds he received, he sympathizingly remarks (p. 
355), "After having lost his scalp, and endured the pain 
resulting from fifteen wounds, it seems to us that this offi- 
cer would have been as useless to the King as he was to 
the Congress; and General Gage may therefore be enti- 
tled to more credit than he has received, for refusing to 
purchase him at the price demanded." 

Again, " General Putnam, after safely resting at Cam- 
bridge until the next morning, returned to the peninsula a 
little before noon, and blustered as was his habit, without 
rendering any service to the fatigue parties, until his eyes 
fell on the tools which the weary workers, still unrefreshed, 
had recently laid down near the works." 

Still again, " It is also evident that the greater number 
were skulkers, who sneaked back to the eastern [western .?] 
side of Bunker Hill, and there assisted. General Putnam in 
waiting for the result of the action, and in joining in the 
retreat." 

We might quote other passages, but these will be enough 
to show the nature of Mr. Dawson's theory, the quality of 
his opinions on this particular point, and the style of his 
expression. One tries to imagine in what condition of 
mind and body the writer penned such sentences. There 
is a bitterness, a vindictiveness in them, especially as writ- 
ten against a man who had been sleeping in his grave 
almost a century, that seems to call for special explana- 
tion. 

But certainly this is a remarkable discovery about Gen- 
eral Putnam. A distinguished man, yet living among us, but 
not noted for early rising, got up one morning in uncom- 
mon season. A friend, surprised at seeing him stirring at 
that time of the day, asked him how he managed to wake 



230 Life of Israel Putnam. 

up, and wished to know if any one called him. " No, sir," 
was the sardonic reply, " I woke up by my own ingenuity 
and vivacity." Mr. Dawson, in like manner, appears to 
have roused himself to the construction of this theory 
purely by his own " ingenuity and vivacity," without any 
one to wake him or help him in any manner. His English 
forefathers, men who fought alongside of Putnam through 
the French War, and against him in the war of the Revo- 
lution, never understood his character and designs. Put- 
nam's own countrymen did not understand them. Even 
Washington did not understand them. Mr. Dawson found 
out exactly what they were, only a very few years ago. It 
is truly remarkable. Mr. Dawson is well known for his 
historical learning. His pages are richly freighted with 
notes and references, such as are usually quite valuable. 
But the word reference and the word itiference are very 
much alike in mechanical structure. They have the same 
number of letters, only one has four e's and the other three 
e's and an i. It is curious to notice that the foot notes 
supporting this theory in Mr. Dawson's pages contain no 
^/r^*:/ evidence or testimony in its favor; his references all 
turn into inferences. 

Some of the men on that hill during that long forenoon 
suspected " treachery," and of course it was General Put- 
nam who was the traitor. It could not possibly have been 
General Ward out at Cambridge, who promised to send 
reinforcements and refreshments early in the morning, and 
never sent the latter apparently at all, and the former not 
till afternoon. It could not have been his course of con- 
duct which occasioned the feeling that some one was play- 
ing false with them. No ; it was General Putnam ; there is 
no doubt of it. If those men suspected treachery some- 
where, General Putnam was the traitor. It is a remarka- 
bly brilliant discovery, and Mr. Dawson shall have all the 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 231 

honors belonging to it and springing from it. But it is 
very natural to remark, that a man who could play the 
traitor that day to any purpose must have been one who 
stood at the head of the action on the field. A subordi- 
nate officer or a volunteer could not easily have guided 
that battle into the British hands, if he wished to. The 
whole theory is so preposterous that we are sure many of 
our readers will be utterly surprised to know that any man 
ever thought of such a thing. 

Leaving this aside as a mere episode, we turn now to 
the work which we propose in connection with the litera- 
ture of Bunker Hill. 

At the outset, it is to be borne in mind that immediately 
after the battle, the official authorities were careful in all 
their publications not to mention the names of the leaders. 
In the account which the Massachusetts Provincial Con- 
gress prepared (June 28th) to be sent to the Committee of 
Safety at Albany, they speak only of a " body of men," and 
mention not a name connected with the battle. In the 
statement prepared by the Massachusetts Committee of 
Safety (July 25th) to be sent for publication to England, 
they mention only the names of the dead, already removed 
out of the way of British vengeance, such as General War- 
ren, Colonel Gardner, Colonel Parker, Major Moore and 
Major McClary. It was the opening of a great and uncer- 
tain contest, and the authorities would not needlessly ex- 
pose men who had taken their lives in their hands for the 
common good. But after a little time this habit of silence 
began slowly to disappear. The strife had assumed national 
proportions. The Continental Congress had acted. Wash- 
ington was commander-in-chief of the American army, and 
his higher officers were grouped around him. The thing 
could no longer " be done in a corner." 

It is also to be borne in mind that the news of the death 



232 Life of Israel Putnam. 

of Warren — a man greatly beloved — was instantly carried 
in all directions, and the first natural conclusion of men was 
that he was the commander. 

Rev. Andrew Eliot of Boston writes two days after the 
battle (June 19th) to his brother in London, " Dr. War- 
ren is among the slain. It is said he had the chief direc- 
tion of the defence ; if this is true, it seems to me he was 
out of his line." 

With the British officers and soldiers there was of course 
no principle of secresy as to the facts on our side. They 
were at liberty to tell all they knew or suspected. An offi- 
cer of the British army, writing home, June 25th (" Ameri- 
can Archives," 4th series, Vol. II. p. 1092), has the fol- 
lowing sentences in his letter : " After the skirmish of the 
17th we even commended the troops of Putnam, who fought 
so gallantly /r<? aris et focis." And again in the same 
letter, " So very secretly was the late action conducted, 
that Generals Clinton and Burgoyne knew not of it till the 
morning, though the town did in general, and Putnam in 
particular." 

Another of these British officers that give accounts of 
the battle is John Clarke, Lieutenant of the marines. His 
narrative may be found in Mr. Drake's book, entitled, 
" Bunker Hill : the story told in letters from the battle- 
field, by British officers engaged." The sentences we quote 
are on p. 50. The writer is speaking of General Warren. 
" The doctor's dress was a light-colored coat, with a white 
satin waistcoat laced with silver, and white breeches, with 
silver loops, which I saw the soldier soon after strip off his 
body. He was supposed to be the commander of the 
American army that day ; for General Putnam was about 
three miles distance, and formed an ambuscade with about 
three thousand men." 

We know of course that he was all wrong in this last 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art, 233 

supposition, but this sentence is an intensely interesting 
and instructive one for this reason : It throws a distinct 
ray of light over some of the obscure things of that day. 
The British officers knew, probably, that Putnam was sta- 
tioned at Inman's farm, and that he had there a regiment of 
one thousand men, and they may have known that he had 
also two other regiments under his command, which might 
be just as large. Now, this Lieutenant Clarke's theory of 
the battle is seen to be that Putnam was lying back at 
Cambridgeport, expecting the British would break through 
the lines on Bunker Hill and pursue the flying troops 
towards Cambridge; and he, the old, wily French and 
Indian ranger, would suddenly spring up with his three 
thousand men, and confront them, and possibly cut them all 
to pieces. They were not to be caught in that trap. But 
we know that trap was never set, though it was fortunate 
for us, perhaps, that some of the British officers thought it 
was. 

To show that this was not Lieutenant Clarke's theory 
alone, but was to some extent current on the British side, 
we give a few lines from the poem of George Cookings, 
printed in London, and happily included in Mr. Drake's 
book, p. 62. In this poem General Warren is represented 
as commander, and the poet says, — 

*' With sage precaution Howe the chase declined, 
With circumspection mov'd, and wou'd not dare 
To hazard a defeat in Putnam's snare." 

And again the poet says, — 

" Each eminence was fortified around, 
And ambuscades possessed the lower ground ; 
Here Putnam, Pribble, Ward, and Thomas stayed 
To check pursuit, and pour in friendly aid." 

With what we know of the battle, it is easily seen that 



234 Life of Israel Putnam. 

everything is at " sixes and sevens " in these minds. But 
be it noted, that the reason why Lieutenant Clarke sup- 
posed Warren was commander was because Putman was 
three miles off with an ambuscade. It seems not to have 
occurred to him that a Colonel was chief commander. 

That fact about the ambuscade failing him, he would 
doubtless return to the other opinion, and say Putnam was 
commander. It is a somewhat impressive fact that in all 
these British accounts of the battle published in Mr. Drake's 
book, we do not discover that Colonel Prescott is mentioned 
in any connection whatever. He is mentioned once in the 
poem, but not in any association with the redoubt or with 
any command that day. It stands simply in a list of nine- 
teen names, when, by the poet's fancy. General Warren 
is represented as telling over the elements of American 
strength. The first name in this list is Putnam, and the 
seventeenth is Prescott. With this exception we discover 
no reference to Prescott in these British accounts embraced 
in Mr. Drake's book. These English officers, thoroughly 
acquainted with the constitution of an army, if they thought 
of Prescott at all, thought of him only as a subordinate offi- 
cer, as they would of any other Colonel or Major. 

But we will turn now from the early English literature 
of the battle to the American. When that battle was 
fought, Dr. Ezra Stiles (two years later made President of 
Yale College) was the Congregational minister of Newport, 
Rhode Island. He was a native of Connecticut, and was 
then forty-eight years old. He was most intensely patri- 
otic, and burning with desire to hear the news from Boston. 
He kept a diary, which is now in manuscript in the library 
of Yale College. Mr. Dawson obtained leave to have that 
diary transcribed and published, so far as it relates to the 
matter before us. This portion was first brought out by 
him, and we are very much obliged to him for this service. 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 235 

One of the most curious and interesting features of that 
diary is, that it shows us exactly how news would reach a 
man seventy miles away, after travelling over the hills and 
passing through the mouths of men intensely excited. 
June 1 8th, he hears that a battle has been fought, and 
among the items that reach him, this is one : " That Colo- 
nel Putnam is encamped at Charlestown on Bunker Hill, 
and has lost one of his best Captains, but is determined to 
stand his ground, having men enough." 

Being a little one side, he has not kept up with passing 
events. He calls him " Colonel Putnam," the title he wore 
when he came home from the French War, and the com- 
mon title by which he was known to the people before 1775. 
He has not heard, apparently, or forgets for the moment, 
that the Connecticut Assembly has made him a Brigadier- 
General. 

By June 19th he hears some more news. He says, " We 
have various accounts, some that General Putnam is sur- 
prised and taken by the King's troops, some that he re- 
pulsed them, and had, by assistance of others coming up, 
placed the regulars between two fires. At 10 o'clock at 
night the news was that General Putnam was forced from 
his trenches on Bunker Hill, and obliged to retreat." 

This time it is General, and not Colonel, Putnam. 

On the 20th he hears more news. " General Greene 
says General Putnam, with three hundred men, took posses- 
sion and intrenched on Bunker Hill, on Friday night, i6th 
inst." Then on June 23d, some visitors, who had been to 
Boston, returned and reported that " They spent one hour 
with General Putnam in his tent on Prospect Hill, about 
half-way between Cambridge and Charlestown. The Gen- 
eral gave them an account of the battle last Saturday." 

But we cannot linger on these details. At first, with 
Dr. Stiles, it is all the while Colonel Putnam or General 



236 Life of Israel Putnam. 

Putnam, By and by Prescott's name begins to come in, 
and the diarist is evidently in a kind of confusion as to 
the relations of the two. He is trying hard to find out how 
many of the British were killed and wounded, and he takes 
evident pleasure in recording large numbers under this head. 
For some days he inclines to the idea that about one thou- 
sand of the regulars were actually killed. 

Mr, Frothingham quotes this same diary on the Prescott 
side. We do not think this can fairly be done, especially 
when we notice that some of Dr. Stiles's early information 
came directly from General Greene himself, who we know 
was in Rhode Island at that time, and who doubtless 
understood what he was talking about. One good clear 
word from General Greene in those exciting hours was 
worth any number of mixed and wandering rumors. 

If any one wishes to know the men who were upper- 
most in Dr. Stiles's mind eight years afterwards, in 1783, 
when the war was just over, he may find some of their 
names in the Election Sermon which he preached that year 
before Governor Trumbull and the General Assembly of 
Connecticut. There is one passage where he brings out our 
indebtedness to France. After a high rhapsody over the 
beloved name of Washington, he goes on as follows : 
" None but Americans can write the American War, They 
will celebrate the names of a Washington and a Rocham- 
beau ; a Greene and a Lafayette ; a Lincoln and Chastel- 
lux ; a Gates and a Viomenil ; a Putnam and a Duke de Lau- 
zun ; a Morgan, and other heroes who rushed to arms and 
offered themselves voluntarily for the defence of liberty." 

Then he adds the names of the illustrious dead, " War- 
ren, Mercer, Montgomery, De Kalb, Wooster, Thomas, 
Pulaski." The name of Prescott does not stand on this 
honored roll, but the name of Benjamin Lincoln, a Massa- 
chusetts man, is found there. He was a Colonel, like Pres- 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 237 

cott, in 1775. He was a Major-General of militia in 1776, 
a Continental Major-General in 1777, chief commander of 
the southern department in 1778, received the submis- 
sion of Cornwallis's troops in 1781, and in the same year 
was made Secretary of War. That was a record which 
entitled him to have his name on that roll. 

There is one document which we must not pass by, and 
which belongs to the very early days. We refer to the let- 
ter which Colonel Prescott wrote to John Adams on the 
25th of August, 1775. It is a very remarkable letter, and 
we quote it in full. We have already several times taken 
short sentences from it, but its very extraordinary character 
makes it deserving of careful consideration. This was 
written more than two months after the battle, and the 
secresy as to names was no longer needful. We do not 
discover that much use was made of this letter by the 
newspapers and orators on the centennial 17th of June. 
"Camp at Cambridge, August 25th, 1775. 

*' Sir : I have received a line from my brother, which informs 
me of your desire of a particular account of the action at Charles- 
town. It is not in my power, at present, to give so minute an 
account as I should choose, being ordered to decamp and march 
to another station. 

"On the 1 6th of June, in the evening, I received orders to 
march to Breed's Hill in Charlestown, with a party of about one 
thousand men, consisting of three hundred of my own regi- 
ment, Colonel Bridge and Lieutenant Brickett with a detach- 
ment of theirs, and two hundred Connecticut forces, commanded 
by Captain Knowlton. We arrived at the spot, the lines were 
drawn by the engineer, and we began the intrenchment about 
twelve o'clock ; and plying the work with all possible expedition 
till just before sunrising, when the enemy began a very heavy 
cannonading and bombardment. In the interim, the engineer 
forsook me. Having thrown up a small redoubt, found it neces- 
sary to draw a line about twenty rods in length from the fort 



238 Life of Israel Putnam. 

northerly, under a very warm fire from the enemy's artillery. 
About this time the above field officers, being indisposed, could 
render but little service, and the most of the men under their 
command deserted the party. The enemy continuing an inces- 
sant fire with their artillery, about 2 o'clock in the afternoon 
on the 17th, they began to land a north-easterly point from 
the fort, and I ordered the train with two field pieces to 
go and oppose them, and the Connecticut forces to support 
them ; but the train marched a different course, and I be- 
lieve those sent to their support followed, I suppose to Bun- 
ker Hill. Another party of the enemy landed and fired the 
town. There was a party of Hampshire, in conjunction with 
some other forces, lined a fence at the distance of threescore 
rods back of the fort, partly to the north. About an hour after 
the enemy landed, they began to mqrch to the attack in three 
columns. I commanded my Lieutenant-Colonel Robinson and 
Major Woods, each with a detachment, to flank the enemy, who, 
I have reason to think, behaved with prudence and courage. I 
was now left with perhaps one hundred and fifty men in the fort. 
The enemy advanced and fired very hotly on the fort, and meet- 
ing with a warm reception, there was a very smart firing on both 
sides. After a considerable time, finding our ammunition was 
almost spent, I commanded a cessation till the enemy advanced 
within thirty yards, when we gave them such a hot fire that they 
were obliged to retire nearly one hundred and fifty yards before 
they could rally and come again to the attack. Our ammunition 
being nearly exhausted, could keep up only a scattering fire. 
The enemy being numerous, surrounded our little fort, began to 
mount our lines, and enter the fort with their bayonets. We was 
obliged to retreat through them, while they kept up as hot a fire 
as it was possible for them to make. We having very few bayon- 
ets, could make no resistance. We kept the fort about one hour 
and twenty minutes after the attack with small arms. This is 
nearly the state of facts, though imperfect and too general, which, 
if any ways satisfactory to you, will afford pleasure to your most 
obedient humble servant, William Prescott." 

"To the Hon. John Adams, Esq." 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 2,y^ 

Now, we pronounce this to be, under the circumstances, 
and in whatever way it be looked at, a most extraordinary- 
production. Knowing what we now do of the battle, what 
everybody knows who has made any study of it, what the 
special friends of Prescott most fully admit and publish in all 
their writings, it is almost inconceivable that Prescott should 
have sent such a letter to John Adams as giving any ade- 
quate account of the action. Even as a local commander 
at the redoubt, if he told substantially all he knew, the 
fact must stand as a marvel. But if he were general com- 
mander on that field, and could give no fuller and better 
account of what transpired there, the military and civil 
authorities of that day certainly had very good reasons for 
never promoting him. 

Let us look at this matter in detail. Any reader, who 
knew nothing of the battle otherwise, would say that Pres- 
cott here conveys the impression that the battle was fought 
mainly by those one hundred and fifty men that he had 
with him in the fort, and the two detachments which he 
sent out. 

But this letter is remarkable in many other respects. 
There is not one generous word here for anybody but him- 
self, except a modified compliment for his own Lieutenant- 
Colonel and Major, and a compliment to them was in some 
sense a compliment to himself.* General Putnam f is not 
even named or remotely hinted at, and no one would know 
from this letter that there was such a man in existence. 

* In one of the sarcastic accounts from an English pen, which will be 
found in the Appendix, there is this sentence respecting Gage : " With all the 
vanity of a military man, he praises the conduct of his officers." 

t " It is a noticeable fact that this remarkable paper (the Prescott Manu. 
script) .... (nor yet Colonel Prescott's letter to John Adams, soon after 
the battle, each of them giving an account of the engagement) does not con- 
tain the name of Colonel [General] Putnam, an omission hardly to be expected 
ia these papers, or in any respectable account of the battle." — W. W. Wheil- 
don, Esq., in " New History of the Battle of Bunker Hill," p. i6. 



240 Life of Israel Ptitnam. 

"The engineer forsook me." This was the brave, noble, 
skilful Colonel Gridley, afterwards one of the Major-Gen- 
erals of the Continental army. Prescott does not conde- 
scend to tell us that Colonel Gridley, a man already sixty- 
four years old, who had been up all night, was in the thick- 
est of that fight simply as a volunteer, was carried off the 
field severely wounded, and came near being shot through 
and through after he had received his wound, by a concen- 
tric fire from the British muskets. All that he had to say 
of him was, " The engineer forsook me." Next, " Colonel 
Bridge and Lieutenant Brickett* .... could render me 
but little service, and the most of the men under their 
command deserted the party." Did Colonel Prescott think 
that just in proportion as the men he was set to command 
ran away, so much the more would his own military hero- 
ism shine out .■* Then he sent the artillery to oppose the 
enemy, and the Connecticut men to support the artillery ; 
but the artillery cleared out, and he implies that the Con- 
necticut men did too, or at least that they went where they 
were of very little use. We know how those Connecticut 
men built and manned that fence line and defended it, never 
stirring from their post of duty till the redoubt was carried, 
after the British had beaten ineffectually against the fence, 
and could not carry it. We know all this ; but Colonel 
Prescott knew nothing of it, as would appear by this letter. 
" There was a party of Hampshire ! " What a diminutive 
idea this expression conveys of the part New Hampshire 
played in this battle ! They might be a company of forty 
or fifty men ; the reader would hardly suppose from this let- 
ter that there were more than some such number. And 

*One would naturally infer from the letter that Colonel Bridge and Lieu- 
tenant Brickett, who " could render me but little service," went off, — " deserted 
the party," when their men did. But Colonel Bridge and Lieutenant Brickett 
were both, like Colonel Gridley, wounded in the battle, though not so severely. 
And what is equally important, this Lieutenant-Colonel Brickett, as already 
stated, was the next year promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General. 



Bunker Hill Litcrahtre and Art. 241 

yet that "party of Hampshire" contained six times the 
number of men that he says he had with him in the fort. 
He knows something about their being behind a fence " in 
conjunction with some others," but he is inchned to think 
he "beheves" that the Connecticut forces went off to Bun- 
ker Hill. Now, to show what kind of service this "party 
of Hampshire " rendered, we quote a brief passage from the 
British officer. Lieutenant John Clarke, to whose narrative 
we have already referred. He says (see Mr. Drake's vol- 
ume, p. 49), "Another remarkable circumstance of the 
heat of this action is, that all the grenadiers of the 4th, or 
King's own, regiment were killed or wounded except four ; 
and of the grenadiers also of the 23d, or Royal Welsh 
fusileers, only three remained who were not either killed 
or wounded." Now, those two companies of grenadiers, in 
the first attack, were the front companies in the British 
column moving close by the shores of the Mystic, that was 
expected to break through the fence and flank the redoubt. 
This movement brought the column directly in the face of 
this " party of Hampshire," and the result is told above. 
In the " Life and Letters of John Stark," it is stated that 
the regiment of Welsh fusileers of seven hundred men 
could muster only eighty-three the next morning. 

But we must not linger on these details. We pass to 
note another item in this letter. The friends of Prescott 
are very fond of making him the man who before the ac- 
tion told his men, and sternly commanded them, and sent 
the order all along the line, not to fire a musket until the 
enemy were close at hand ; and in some accounts he is rep- 
resented as moving along the lines, and threatening with 
death any man that should discharge his musket before the 
order to fire was given.* Now, Prescott tells no such story, 

* " The advancing columns, however, having got within gunshot, a few of 
the Americans could not resist the temptation to return their fire without 
16 



242 Life of Israel Putnam. 

but a very different one. He says there was "a very 
smart firing on both sides," and then adds, " After a con- 
siderable time, finding our ammunition was almost spent, I 
commanded a cessation till the enemy advanced within 
thirty yards." We are satisfied that this order to withhold 
the fire was passed along the fence line and was there acted 
upon from the first, but if we are to believe Colonel Pres- 
cott, the ammunition was mostly spent at the redoubt be- 
fore that order was given ; and we may add that it was 
fired away at long range, for the British did not seriously 
attack the redoubt in the two first assaults. 

We think it perfectly fair and legitimate at this point to 
raise the query whether a man that had no more generous 
emotions than are shown in this letter, no fund of magna- 
nimity out of which to give others their due meed of praise, 
could by any possibility ever become a great military leader. 
Personal courage he might have in a high degree, and we 
do not doubt that Prescott possessed this courage, but mag- 
netic power over other men with this spirit he did not have 
and could not have. Contrast this conduct with that 
ascribed to Putnam, even by such a man as General Heath, 
who was not a friend over fond of Putnam.. General Heath 
wrote to John Adams, October 23d, 1775 (the passage may 
be found in the " Siege of Boston," p. 396), and told him of 
an account which had been published in a Connecticut 
paper of the battle of Bunker Hill, in which Prescott and 
other prominent Massachusetts names had been wholly 
omitted. But said General Heath, " this account was de- 
tested by the brave Putnam and others of that colony." In 
that brief sentence, one can see the movings of a great soul 
that scorns to take from another man his due ; and the 

waiting for orders. Prescott indignantly remonstrated at this disobedience, 
and appealed to their often expressed confidence in him as their leader ; while 
his officers seconded his exertions, and some ran along the parapet and kicked 
up the guns." — " Siege of Boston," p. 141. 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 243 

secret of that power which Putnam had over other men was 
largely in this noble quality of his character. He asked no 
man to go where he was afraid to go himself, and in the 
honors of any action he often distributed to others even 
more than their rightful portion. ■ A man may be person- 
ally as bold as a lion, but if he will have everything to him- 
self, and leave others to cold neglect, he cannot bind men 
in any heroic devotion to his leadership. 

And just here, as it appears, was the weakness of Pres- 
cott, even as local commander of the redoubt. He ought 
not to have lost so large a portion of those eight hundred 
Massachusetts men. He ought to have infused them with 
the patriotic fire which would have enabled them to bear a 
little hunger and thirst and weariness, and almost criminal 
delay in Ward, the commander-in-chief. The men of Con- 
necticut endured all these things, and stayed faithfully on 
the field to the last. Moreover, there ought to have been 
such magnetism in Prescott as to have drawn naturally to 
his help his own Massachusetts brethren, who were scat- 
tered to the number of many hundreds around those hill- 
sides and about the neck, doing little or nothing, yea, 
worse than that, a mere hindrance and source of bad con- 
tagion to others. From the very best lights we can gain, 
out of all the records of this first great action of the Revo- 
lution, we say unhesitatingly that Prescott was then for 
the first time thoroughly tried in his military capacity, and 
did not equal the hopes entertained of him, and conse- 
quently he was never promoted. If he had held in his 
grasp that first number, eight hundred, as Stark and Reed 
held their men, to the battle line, and as Captain Knowlton 
held his, the day, glorious as it was, would have had a still 
more illustrious issue. With those eight hundred doing 
such service as the " party of Hampshire " did, the rest of 
the Massachusetts regiments might have stayed in their 



244 Life of Israel Putnam. 

camps at Cambridge, and the victory would have been 
ours. 

There are a good many bits of literature lying about, 
which, like that juSt noticed, when brought out and fairly 
confronted, do not impress one as great intellectually, while 
at the same time they are sadly wanting in magnanimity. 
We may notice one more of these at this point. General 
Ward also wrote a letter to John Adams in the October 
following the battle, in which he said, " Some have said 
hard things of the officers of this colony and despised 
them ; but I think, as mean as they have represented them 
to be, there has been no one action with the enemy which 
has not been conducted by an officer of this colony, except 
that at Chelsea, which was conducted by General Putnam." 
(A part of this sentence has been quoted before in another 
connection. We give it here in full.) This sentence has 
been allowed to lie quietly in the background (not much 
used, but never forgotten), to impress the reader that Gen- 
eral Ward meant in this way to say that Prescott was the 
chief commander at Bunker Hill. But as the sentence was 
written in 1775, and we have shown, and shall still further 
show, how the people of 1775, British and American alike, 
spoke of the leadership in that battle, we find no evidence 
whatever that General Ward once thought of Colonel Pres- 
cott while he was penning those words. We look at these 
sentences, on the other hand, chiefly as an attempt on the 
part of General Ward at self-justification ; for his conduct, 
in a military point of view, had been sorely criticised, as it 
was right and proper it should be. We have evidence 
enough of that in the first words of the sentence. He 
meant to say, so far as Bunker Hill was concerned, 
that he was the general director of that affair, as he 
was. If it had been Napoleon Bonaparte out at Cambridge 
doing the same class of things (though they would have 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 245 

been done in a very different style), no one would have hesi- 
tated to call him the commander-in-chief. General Ward 
was here trying to tell John Adams something like what 
the centurion in the Gospels said — Was not I a man under 
authority, having soldiers under me, and did I not say to 
this man, Go ; and to another man, Come ; and to my ser- 
vant, Do this ? Undoubtedly he did, and he did it in such 
a way that it was best for him to retire from military life 
upon those laurels, in the following spring. He went back 
to civil life, where, as we have already said, he was a good 
man and true, — honorable alike in character and conduct. 
But he was wholly out of his place as a military officer, and 
especially as chief commander of the American army. 

They who can find in those words of his to John Adams 
any theory as to Prescott's being chief commander in the bat- 
tle, must read them with minds fixed only upon one favorite 
idea. As to this matter of chief command, there was pre- 
cisely the same problem on the British side as on ours. 
Howe was the chief commander on the field, but General 
Gage was the real commander-in-chief, and was held strictly 
accountable as such by the British people. Ward opposed 
the movement itself beforehand, so that the American 
people never held him so blameworthy for his conduct as 
they otherwise would; but strictly he occupied the same 
relations to the battle on his side, that General Gage did 
on his, and that is what he quietly claims in his letter to 
John Adams. By the time he wrote that letter, the great 
advantages secured to us by the battle were acknowledged 
on both sides the water. 

In sharp and striking contrast to the spirit of these two 
letters, and their utter silence about General Putnam, we 
propose now to introduce a witness that is doubtless impar- 
tial, and whose utterances cannot but have weight with any 
unprejudiced mind. There was belonging to Boston, in 



246 Life of Israel Putnam. 

1775, a newspaper called " The New England Chronicle, or 
Essex Gazette." A year or two later it was named " The 
Independent Chronicle." For short, when we have occa- 
sion to mention it by name, we will call it the " Chronicle." 
It could not of course be published in Boston in 1775, but 
it was "printed by Samuel and Ebenezer Hall at their 
office in Stoughton Hall," Cambridge. It was therefore 
close to the headquarters of the American army, and had 
every advantage for obtaining military news. But for two 
or three months it acted upon that policy of silence as to 
the leaders which we have elsewhere noticed. Some of 
the very first items which we find, indicating who was the 
chief commander in the battle on the American side, are 
in little paragraphs of English news, or clippings from 
English papers, — in other words, we see at first, through 
English eyes, who was at the head of this Bunker Hill army. 

In the issue of October 19th, 1775, is the following, 
which, though not true in point of historical fact, is just as 
good for our purpose as though it were true : 

^^ London, yuly 22d. — It is reported that a letter from Bos- 
ton brings an accqunt that General Putnam had sent a mes- 
sage to General Gage, wherein he informed him that if he 
did not quit that place and embark with his troops, he would 
lay siege to it with thirty thousand men, when neither he 
nor his troops were to expect any quarter." 

If this passage needs any commentary, the explanation 
is simple. The battle of Bunker Hill had passed, in which 
Gage had met with great losses. The writer of the above 
embodies the American fighting interest in Putnam as the 
head man, and considers Gage's condition very critical. It 
will be seen in reading these items that we had, as already 
suggested, warm friends in England. 

October 26th, the "Chronicle" has the following: 

"London, August <^th. Yesterday the right honorable 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 247 

the Lord Mayor invited the freeholders of Middlesex to 
dine with him at the George at Cheswick, when upwards 
of three hundred honored him with their company. Seve- 
ral toasts were drank, among which were the following: i. 
General Putnam and all those American heroes who like 
men nobly prefer death to slavery and chains." 

At Dublin there was a Society of Free Citizens. At 
one of their meetings we have this record of a toast drank, 
as reported in the " Chronicle," November 2 : 

"Dublin, yuly i<^th. — General Putnam and his brave 
provincials — Governor Trumbull. May the military ever be 
subservient to the civil power." 

The friends of America over in England were doing the 
same thing that the Philadelphians were doing, according 
to Silas Deane's account, quoted in a previous chapter. It 
was the day for drinking toasts, and men expressed the senti- 
ments which were uppermost in their hearts in this way ; 
and so Putnam was the " second or third toast at almost all 
the tables " in Philadelphia. 

All those items from Mr. Deane's letters, written in 1775, 
which are placed in Chapter VI. of this volume, to show 
Putnam's popularity, might just as appropriately stand here 
as evidences of his leadership in the battle. 

Here is another item from the " Chronicle : " 

" Cambridge, December 14th. — A letter from London 
dated September i st, mentions that the day before a gentle- 
man of that city, a sincere friend to America, had his new- 
born son baptized by the name of Putnam." 

Why all this excitement in England over Putnam "i 

Another item in the same paper : 

" Cambridge, December 14th. — The fort on Cobble Hill 
was completed the latter end of last week, without the least 
interruption from the enemy. It is allowed to be the most 
perfect piece of fortification that the American army has 



248 Life of Israel Putnam. 

constructed during the present campaign, and on the day of 
its completion was named Putnam s intpreg7iable fortress y 

This last item proves nothing except the fame and repu- 
tation of Putnam at that time in the American army. 

In the record of the court-martial to try Colonel Scam- 
mans, as published in the "Chronicle" for February 19th, 
1776, occur little sentences in the testimony of witnesses, 
of which the following may be taken as examples : 

" After which General Putnam came up and ordered the 
regiment to advance, within hearing of Colonel Scam- 
mans." 

" I was sent by Colonel Scammans to General Putnam 
to know if his regiment was wanted," 

For some items that follow, a little explanation is needed. 
On the 13th of June, Colonel John Whitcomb was chosen 
first Major-Gen eral of Massachusetts troops, by the Mas- 
sachusetts Provincial Congress. He was reluctant about 
accepting. On the i6th, the Congress appointed a com- 
mittee to vyrite what it calls a "complaisant letter" to him 
on the subject. That letter seems to have prevailed, for on 
Friday, June 23d, a committee was sent to him to " desire 
him to attend this Congress and receive his commission," 

On the day of the battle, therefore, he had not received 
his commission. He was in this respect in the same con- 
dition as Warren, who was chosen second Major-General, 
June 14th. Whitcomb, however, did not, like Warren and 
Pomeroy, go to the battle-field. Still he was in the vicini- 
ty, and was partially recognized as a general officer. His 
name often occurs in this trial of Colonel Scammans, and 
he himself is one of the witnesses called to give testimony. 
To show how his name is used, we give the following pas- 
sage from the "Chronicle" of February 21st, 1776: 

" Captain Jeremiah Hill deposed and said, that down by the 
bridge near Lechmere's Point we met General Whitcomb, who 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 249 

told Colonel Scammans that he had better go round to the little 
hill and wait their motions there ; we accordingly went and 
stayed there half an hour. Colonel John Whitcomb, who is styled 
by the foregoing deponents General^ deposed and said : I met 
Colonel Scammans with his regiment about fifty rods from Lech- 
mere's Point ; I asked him what brought him there ; he replied 
by asking me where he should go ; I told him where he could 
do the most service ; I am positive I never ordered him to the 
little hill, if my memory serves me, because men could be of no 
service in such a place except in the night." 

Upon this testimony the editor, who, as already suggested, 
was probably Colonel Scaraman^ himself, bases some re- 
marks of his own, which are inserted into the midst of the 
narrative in this wise : " [N. B. Colonel Whitcomb then 
acted as a general officer, and as there was no general offi- 
cer that commanded at Bunker Hill, was it not his duty to 
have been there T\ " We copy only this single sentence. 
The editor, whoever he may be, calls him Colonel, because 
he had not been commissioned. But in what he said and 
did that day he acted as a General, on the ground that he 
had been chosen Major-General by the Congress. And 
acting so, at and near Lechmere's Point, the editor's opin- 
ion is, that he ought to have gone on to Bunker Hill, where 
there was " then no general officer that commanded." Now, 
the hasty reader might conclude that this was testimony by 
this writer against General Putnam, and those words are 
quoted and allowed to carry this meaning by some writers. 
But if he will study the passage carefully, and cgnsider its 
connections, he will see the meaning to be this : At that 
point of time, while the battle was in progress, General 
Putnam was fully occupied at the front, a third of a mile 
away from this scene of confusion. Bunker Hill was 
the path over which all the regiments were compelled to go, 
if they would reach that front line where the battle was 



2$0 Life of Israel Piitnam. 

then raging. This hill was crowded with these regiments 
that were sent on at the last moment, and here was that 
scene of utter disorder described in a previous chapter. 
What the editor meant to say, therefore, was, that if Colonel 
Whitcomb acted as a General at all, he ought to have gone 
over to Bunker Hill and exercised his authority in trying 
to heal those gross disorders, to disentangle that snarl, and 
send the halting regiments forward to their post of duty. 
The very testimony into which these remarks are projected 
shows at various points (as in the passages we have selected) 
that Putnam was the recognized commander in the battle ; 
and it is the editorial opinion that Whitcomb ought to have 
gone to his help, and urged forward, by his authority, the 
reinforcements. 

And now there is one general remark to be made, which 
in its way is quite significant. We have looked over with 
a considerable degree of care the pages of the "Chroni- 
cle," for the years 1775-79, ^^^ we have not found the 
name of Colonel William Prescott mentioned in any con- 
nection whatever. Several times we thought we had run 
against it, but upon examination it always proved to be 
Colonel Richard Prescot, afterwards General Richard Pres- 
cot of the British army. We will not say the name is not 
there, for in that fine and faded type the eye might over- 
look it ; but we have honestly tried to find it in those 
pages, and could not. They are seemingly just as silent in 
that respect as was Colonel Prescott in his letter to John 
Adams about General Putnam, 

We turn now from the " Chronicle " to similar bits of con- 
temporary literature gathered from various quarters. 

A letter written by a gentleman in Providence to his friend 
in New York (June 20, 1775), and which may be found in 
"American Archives" (4th series, Vol. II. p. 1036), opens 
as follows : "On the evening of the i6th, Colonel Putnam 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 251 

took possession of Bunker Hill with about two thousand 
men, and began an intrenchment." 

The " Pennsylvania Packet " of June 26th says, " General 
Putnam, who commanded the continental troops, is a vete- 
ran soldier of great experience. He served during the 

whole of the last war against the French Such a 

man is every way qualified to command a set of virtuous 
provincials. General Gage, with a mercenary handful of 
troops, will stand an excellent chance against such a man 
as Putnam, who abounds in bravery, good sense and honor." 

Here it is directly stated that " Putnam commanded the 
continental troops," but in many of the items given this 
statement is not made in form, but in substance. When a 
man is talking with his fellow-men about deeply exciting 
and passing events of wide-spread interest, their common 
knowledge and emotion make it unnecessary that certain 
words should be used, which would otherwise be natural 
and requisite. 

A week after the great fire which consumed so large a 
part of Boston, two citizens of Massachusetts, talking 
together upon the subject, would not be apt to remind each 
other that this fire was in Boston. In like manner, when 
the men of England and the men of Philadelphia, and 
doubtless of many other places, in the summer of 1775, 
were drinking toasts in honor of " General Putnam " or 
" General Putnam and his brave provincials," it was not 
necessary for the living hearers or readers of 1775, that one 
should stop to add with each repetition of his name, " who 
commanded at Bunker Hill." That was the underlying 
basis of common knowledge on which the toast itself was 
built, for it is preposterous to suppose that they were so 
largely engaged in drinking Putnam's health for what he 
did in the French War, or simply because he was generally 
known to be a brave and able military man. 



252 Life of Israel Putnam. 

The following items are taken from a report made to the 
Massachusetts Provincial Congress, Friday, June 23, 1775 : 

" The committee who were appointed on the 20th instant, to in- 
quire into the misconduct in the late engagement, reported as fol- 
lows, viz., .... Your committee proceeded to Cambridge, waited 
upon the General [Ward] and made him acquainted with their busi- 
ness. He informed your committee that General Putnam had 

made complaint of an officer in the train, etc We applied 

to General Putnam and other officers who were in the heat of the 
engagement for further intelligence. General Putnafn informed 
us that in the late action, as he was riding up Bunker Hill, he 
met an officer of the train drawing his cannon down in great 
haste ; he ordered the officer to stop and go back ; he replied 
that he had no cartridges. The General dismounted and ex- 
amined his boxes, and found a considerable number of cartridges, 
upon which he ordered him back. He refused, until the Gen- 
eral threatened him with immediate death The relation of 

this matter from General Putnam was confirmed by several other 
officers of distinction," * 

There is, of course, no absolute proof from this passage 
that Putnam was in chief command; but its suggestions 
point strongly in that direction, and one can hardly read it 
without receiving that impression. 

We find some very strong evidence in the same direc- 
tion in a letter written from Philadelphia, September 26, 
1775, by Samuel Adams to Elbridge Gerry. (" Wells's Life," 
etc., Vol. II. p. 323.) He says, — 

" Some of our military gentlemen have, I fear, disgraced us 
[Massachusetts officers he means] ; it is, then, important that every 
anecdote that concerns a man of real merit among them, and 
such I know there are, be improved as far as decency will per- 
mit of it to their advantage, and the honor of a colony, which 
for its zeal in the great cause, as well as its sufferings, deserves 
*" American Archives," 4th Series, Vol. II. p. 1438. 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 253 

so much of America, Until I visited headquarters at Cambridge, 
I never heard of the valor of Prescott at Bunker Hill, nor the 
ingenuit)'' of Knox and Waters in planning the celebrated works 
at Roxbury." 

This passage may need a word of explanation. During 
the summer of 1775, Mr. Adams had been at Philadelphia, 
a member of the Continental Congress. He reached his 
home in Massachusetts August 11, and now, September 
26, he has just reached Philadelphia on his return. He 
wants Mr. Gerry and others to be particular in forwarding 
promptly to that city all important news. But it is natural 
to remark, that if he had not, between June 17th and 
August nth, "heard of the valor of Prescott at Bunker 
Hill," it had not probably been much noised abroad, and 
certainly it is not likely that he had heard of him during 
that time, as the chief commander in the battle. Turn 
this sentence over again, for here is testimony in point 
from one of the foremost men of the revolutionary period. 
Mr. Adams did not of course mean to say that he had not 
heard of the battle of Bunker Hill. In a letter written to 
James Warren, July 2, 1775, and found in the same volume 
(p. 317), he says, "We know nothing of the disposition of 
the army, not even who commanded in the late important 
engagement." But this was July 2d, and Mr. Adams had 
even then doubtless heard what other people in Philadel- 
phia had heard. We have seen that Silas Deane, another 
member of Congress, had considerable information b}^ that 
time. We have seen that the editor of the " Pennsylvania 
Packet," as early as June 26, was able to talk quite intelli- 
gently upon the subject. But Mr. Adams means to say, 
probably, that he had received no reliable official intelli- 
gence showing who commanded, whether it was Warren or 
Putnam, for both names, as we have seen, were floating on 
the air. But of " Prescott's valor " he did nor hear until 



254 Life of Israel Putnam. 

he reached his home in Massachusetts on the nth of 
August. 

The evidence presented in the last few pages is of a kind 
hard to be resisted. These items, gathered out of the 
newspapers and letters and records of 1775, tell their own 
story, and one item confirms another. There can be no 
possible collusion among the men who pen these para- 
graphs. The three hundred guests of the Lord Mayor who 
are drinking General Putnam's health at the George at 
Cheswick, in England, had no knowledge of what Silas 
Deane had written in his letters to his wife that same sum- 
mer. Samuel Adams, even though reliable news from Bos- 
ton was scarce, did not get his information from the Society 
of Free Citizens at Dublin. 

Such items as these might be greatly extended, no doubt, 
by a wider and longer search among the writings of 1775. 
But enough of them has been given probably to satisfy the 
candid reader, and we do not wish to overload this branch 
of the testimony, because other very important evidence 
yet remains to be unfolded. 

In this analysis of Bunker Hill literature we now make 
a leap forward to the year 18 18. After a little time the 
siege of Boston was ended. The British took their depart- 
ure, satisfied that they were not to enter the interior parts 
of the country through the Boston gateway. The clouds 
which had so long hung over the chief town of New Eng- 
land rolled away, and drifted toward New York, Philadel- 
phia and the more southern portions of the country. In 
that incoming tide of exciting events, the memories of 
Bunker Hill in some measure slumbered, though the record 
of that brilliant day could not be forgotten. 

The long war at last closed, and the nation turned to its 
great work of reconstruction and the making of constitu- 
tions. General Putnam died in 1790, and slept "with his 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 255 

fathers " in an honored grave, — his services acknowledged 
almost universally by his countrymen, as among the most 
important of the revolutionary period. Years passed on. 
The distressing and unpopular war of 1812 came to disturb 
the country for three years. Captain Dearborn, a man to 
whom we have already been introduced as having charge 
of a company in Stark's regiment, had risen to the rank 
of Major-General in this war of 18 12. He was a man 
of no mean abilities, and had served with honor in both 
civil and military affairs. He it was who first gave vent to 
the old pent-up envies and jealousies which had been en- 
gendered among certain military men in that army about 
Boston, in 1775. His own Colonel Stark had doubtless 
ministered in an evil way to a mind not kindly disposed 
in itself toward General Putnam. 

In March, 18 18, in the "Port Folio," he opened his hostile 
batteries, and uttered many hard and cruel words against 
this old revolutionary hero, which we do not propose at 
any great length to repeat. Our purpose is simply to call 
attention to the characteristic feature of this Dearborn 
literature, — its main drift or design, — which has often been 
strangely overlooked. General Dearborn was not trying 
to prove that Colonel Prescott was the general commander 
at Bunker Hill. His chief point is, that General Putnam 
was, or ought to have been, chief commander, but skulked 
away and did not do his duty. He expressly says that 
" No general officer except Putnam appeared in sight ; 
nor did any officer assume any command, undertake to form 
the troops or give any orders in the course of the action 
that I heard, except Colonel Stark." Now, be it noticed 
that there were two general officers on that field besides 
Putnam, viz., Pomeroy and Warren. If Putnam was there, 
as some contend, just as they were there, as a volunteer, 
trying individually to help all he could, why should Dear- 



256 Life of Israel Putnam. 

born launch his thunderbolts at him any more than at 
them ? No ; his underlying philosophy all the while is that 
Putnam was in nominal command at least, but was ineffi- 
cient, and did not do his duty. General Dearborn's strong 
assertion that he heard no one give orders except Colonel 
Stark, and therefore General Putnam did not really command, 
reminds one of the Irishman, who was confronted in a court 
of justice by two witnesses, who swore that they saw the 
prisoner commit an act of theft. " May it please your 
honor," said the Irishman, " I can bring fifty witnesses that 
will swear they did not see me do it." When one con- 
siders that Stark's troops came upon the field just as the 
action was beginning, that they were down by the Mystic 
River, at the farthest possible remove from the centre of 
operations, and that every man had his thoughts most in- 
tently pre-occupied by what was passing before him, how 
little could they know of General Putman's movements 
during the battle ! 

We will take one single passage from Dearborn, in which 
will be comprehended, as in a nutshell, the military phil- 
osophy which underlies his charges. He says, — 

" I heard the gallant Colonel Prescott (who commanded at 
the redoubt) observe after the war, at the table of his Excellency 
James Bowdoin, then Governor of this Commonwealth, * that he 
sent three messages during the battle to General Putnam, re- 
questing him to come forward and take the command, there 
being no general officer present, and the relative rank of the 
Colonel not having been settled ; but that he received no answer ; 
and his whole conduct was such, during the action and the re- 
treat, that he ought to have been shot.' " * 

* It has been very seriously doubted whether Prescott ever made those 
remarks ascribed to him at Governor Bowdoin's table. We are willing to 
have the same doubt, and we quote them here only to show the nature of 
General Dearborn's attack on Putnam, and what he was aiming at. 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 257 

How very differently Colonel Prescott appears in this 
passage from the man of the same name that figures be- 
fore us in some of the modern books ! So far from wish- 
ing or claiming to be commander-in-chief, he is a very hum- 
ble individual, who does not quite know what his relative 
rank is even among the Colonels, and three times sends to 
General Putnam to come forward and take command at the 
redoubt. He would have him leave the general oversight, 
leave the eleven hundred men who were doing such excel- 
lent service along the fence line, and come and take special 
command of those "perhaps one hundred and fifty men" in 
the redoubt, over whom he was appointed local commander. 
But why did he not send this imploring cry to General 
Pomeroy and then abuse him for not coming } Why did 
he send for a man who "could not command Massachu- 
setts soldiers on Massachusetts soil " "i Why did he not call 
on General Warren, who was right by his side, if he had 
any serious doubt about his own rank and title .'' For the 
very obvious reason that Pomeroy and Warren were both 
vohmteers, while Putnam was general commander. And 
while Prescott, on the one hand, thought Putnam ought to 
come and take special command of the fort, and Dearborn, 
on the other hand, wondered and complained because he 
was not at the other extreme of the line, giving orders down 
by the Mystic River, Putnam, as commander of the whole 
field, kept a central position where he could overlook all 
parts of the contest. General Dearborn says, " He [Put- 
nam] remained at or near the top of Bunker Hill until the 
retreat." If he did so, as we have before suggested, he 
occupied a very dangerous position, for we will take from 
this same article of his a passage descriptive of the British 
style of firing. He says, "The fire of the enemy was so 
badly directed, I should presume that forty-nine balls out 
of fifty passed from one to six feet over our heads, for I 
17 



258 Life of Israel Putnam. 

noticed an apple tree, some paces in the rear, which had 
scarcely a ball in it from the ground as high as a man's 
head, while the trunk and branches above were literally cut 
to pieces." Now, though the balls going in that manner, 
at the point where Dearborn was, would not have reached 
the top of Bunker Hill, but would have lodged in its sides, 
yet farther to the left, toward the redoubt, where the 
.ground was much higher, such firing as that from those 
British muskets would have rendered a man extremely lia- 
ble to accidents, " at or near the top of Bunker Hill." But 
General Dearborn knew nothing of Putnam's movements. 
He did not stay in any one place. He was here and there 
and everywhere, as he thought his presence was needed. 

But we will not enlarge. The one point which we wish 
to show is, that this Dearborn literature is not at all con- 
cerned to prove that Colonel Prescott was general com- 
mander that day. It is positive on the other side of that 
question. And so far as General Putnam is concerned, its 
import is, that he was understood to be commander, but 
that he failed in his duty. 

But General Dearborn totally overshot his mark. The 
American people in 18 18 were in no mood to hear old 
General Putnam, whose heroic bravery was of the most 
unquestionable type, called a poltroon and coward, by a 
man who confessed he asked Colonel Stark just to quicken 
his pace a little, as they marched across that neck. The 
publication of that article in the " Port Folio " roused a 
storm of indignation which Dearborn little anticipated. 
Men of the highest rank and character came forward to vin- 
dicate the memory of a hero who had been thus shamefully 
abused. We shall place in the Appendix of this volume, 
two of the seven articles of the Honorable John Lowell of 
Boston, which this attack of Dearborn called out. They 
will be good reading for this generation, and in these cen- 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 259 

tennial days; and he that reads them will see that Mr. 
Lowell, looking at Dearborn's work as above described, is 
not discussing at all the modern question, as to whether 
Prescott or Putnam was chief commander. 

Before proceeding farther, it may be well to recall 
to the readers of this generation who Honorable John 
Lowell was, and what were his qualifications for this kind 
of writing. He was born in Newburyport in 1769, six 
years before the battle of Bunker Hill. He had lived near 
the historic ground, and had brought with him from his 
early years the memories and associations clustering around 
that famous battle-field. He knew from all the conversa- 
tions of men about him in his childhood whom they re- 
garded as commander of the American forces on those 
heights of Charlestown. He was about fifty years old 
when he replied to General Dearborn's accusations. He 
was at that time one of the most able and active lawyers of 
Boston, inheriting in a good degree the legal abilities of 
his father, Judge John Lowell. He was therefore a man 
most eminently fitted to hear and weigh general evidence. 

It was forty-three years after the battle when he took up 
his pen, and these Prescott claims had not yet come up in 
any such way as to attract attention from him. The ques- 
tion which he discussed was this : Did General Putnam 
act well his part as commander at Bunker Hill, or did he 
fail in his duty ? The very first sentence of his first or 
preliminary article opens the field which his arguments are 
to cover. He says, " It is honorable to the moral feelings 
of the American people, that a general burst of indigna- 
tion at the unwarrantable attack on the reputation of one 
of their earliest and ablest officers has compelled the ac- 
cuser to put himself on trial." That style of language from 
one of the ablest men in Boston in 18 18, comprehending 
in his own memory the things whereof he is writing, sounds 



26o Life of Israel Putnam. 

strangely unlike some of the modern utterances. Judge 
Lowell says, at the opening of his last article, " It is a little 
extraordinary that at this late period of time we should 
find men disputing about the most essential facts relating 
to such a battle as that of Bunker Hill ; that even the im- 
portant one, whether there was ajiy commander-in-chief or 
not, is still the subject of controversy. For ourselves we 
think the evidence recently before the public settles that 
question satisfactorily ; and that General Putnam was un- 
doubtedly commander in that action," 

So important is the evidence contained in these articles 
of Mr. Lowell, that the writer had the seven copied in full 
to be placed in the Appendix ; but want of room compels 
him to give only a portion of them there, and it is desirable 
at this point to furnish a brief summary of a part of one of 
his articles, as showing his method of treatment, and what 
the subject was that he was discussing. In his fifth article 
he proposes to introduce what he calls "presumptions 
.... to support the character of a hero whose name will 
be as immortal as the history of that battle, or of the Revo- 
lution, of which it was the first and most glorious fruits," 

" (i) The first presumption we introduce is, General Putnam's 
high character for valor acquired in Lord Chatham's glorious 
war for the conquest of the French Colonies in America 

" (2) The second presumptive proof we shall adduce is the 
silence of all contemporaneous and subsequent historians, as to 
such an infamous charge ; and the positive testimony of all such 
witnesses to his valor, 

"(3) The third is, that when the delinquents in that battle 
were brought to trial, to wit, four Colonels, three Captains, and 
five Lieutenants, many of whom were convicted and cashiered, 
there should not have been a color of evidence, a surmise, a 
whisper, against the conduct of General Putnam 

" (4) The fourth presumption in favor of the utter falsehood 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 261 

of these charges against General Putnam is his appointment, im- 
mediately after this battle, by the Congress of the United States, 

to the second military office in the Revolutionary armies 

" (5) Fifthly, the next and highest presumption in his favor 
arises from the confidence which Washington reposed in him, 
immediately after the battle and during the whole war, until, by 
the act of God, he was compelled to leave the service. Wash- 
ington was the most impartial man, both in his character and 
from his situation, that could be found in the nation. Yet Wash- 
ington was the man who recommended Putnam to this appoint- 
ment. Washington was the man who instituted the inquiries 
into the conduct of the battle of Bunker Hill. Washington was 
the man who entrusted Putnam with the forlorn hope, who were 
to land on Boston Common [on March 5th, 1776, if the British 
had attacked Dorchester Heights, as they did not] and carry the 
war into the very headquarters of the enemy. Washington was 
the man who selected Putnam, nearly a year after the battle of 
Bunker Hill, to defend New York against the whole forces of the 
enemy that he believed had gone there." 

These are the five prestimptions that Mr. Lowell intro- 
duces in one section of his long and diversified argument, 
and which, in its whole length and breadth, is designed to 
be exhaustive, and in our judgment is so. No man has 
ever answered it, nor can any man answer it, in any ade- 
quate way. 

It would be well if some of our modern writers would 
give heed to the weighty words which Mr. Lowell intro- 
duces under one of the heads above given. He says, 
"Every honest and honorable man, indeed the whole 
nation, have a deep interest in the character of Putnam, 
His reputation constituted a part of the national property ; 
it formed a large portion of its fame." 

We cannot dwell longer upon these articles of Mr. 
Lowell. We have given enough so that every reader can 
see what one of Boston's most distinguished citizens, born 



262 Life of Israel Putnam. 

before the battle, and having, of his own personal knowl- 
edge, such materials for its history as no man can now 
have, thought and said on this subject in the year 1818. 
We repeat, the question he was discussing, and the only 
great question then up for discussion was, whether Gen- 
eral Putnam, as commander at Bunker Hill, did his duty 
ably and faithfully, or did not. The modern question had 
not then so arisen above the horizon as to attract atten- 
tion from leading minds. The point to be decided ^^as not 
between Putnam and Prescott, but between Putnam doing 
his duty or not doing it ; between Putnam as commander 
in the battle, or no proper commander at all, — "a headless 
mob," as Colonel Swett calls it. 

In the course of this fifth article, from which we have 
made the above quotations, Mr. Lowell introduces the let- 
ter which John Adams wrote to Daniel Putnam, after read- 
ing his (Putnam's) reply to the slanders of General Dear- 
born, as also another letter from the same pen to President 
Monroe.* Mr. Adams says, — 

" Neither myself nor my family have been able to read either 

* The following are the closing sentences of Mr. Lowell's last article : 
" We now take our leave of this subject, happy in the conviction that 
every generous mind, every man who knows the inestimable value of reputa- 
tion, every fatherless son who cherishes the memory of one whom he laments, 
will be convinced of the unguardedness of those charges against General 
Putnam as well as of their untruth. In performing this pleasing duty of de- 
fending the virtuous and brave, we have as much as possible abstained from 
all recrimination, inviting and open and easy of access as it was. We have 
abstained partly because any comparison of the services of the accuser and ac- 
cused would seem to presuppose some equality in desert, which would have been 
an indignity to the memory of Putnam ; and partly because it would seem as 
if there were some fault imputable to Putnam, which we wished to offset 
against the defects of his calumniator. It is indeed extraordinary that a man 
who has reason to fear that his actions may yet become the subject of bio- 
graphical criticism should have become the accuser of one who was in pos- 
session of a nation's respect, and whose merit was so well able, as wfe have 
seen, to endure the closest scrutiny. Is it that we are blind to our own fail- 
ings, or is it policy, to bring the character of others into question to prevent a 
too curious examination of our own ? A Friend to injured Merit." 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 263 

with dry eyes. They are letters that would do honor to the pen 
of Pliny. You ask whether any dissatisfaction existed in the 
public mind against General Putnam, in consequence of his con- 
duct on the 17th of June. I was in Philadelphia from the 5th 
of May through the summer of 1775, and can testify to nothing 
which passed at Charlestown on the 17th of June. But this I do 
say without reserve, that I never heard the least insinuation of 
dissatisfaction with the conduct of General Putnam through his 
whole life." 

In the midst of this controversy of 18 18, an article ap- 
peared in the " North American Review " (in the July num- 
ber of that year) which has been generally understood to 
have come from the pen of Daniel Webster. Perhaps some 
things said in that article may have afforded a slight foun- 
dation for the modern theories and speculations. It is 
important, therefore, that we should distinctly understand 
the end and aim of the article. It is a strong and bold de- 
fence of General Putnam against his slanderers. It is writ- 
ten with the same essential spirit and design as the articles 
of Mr. Lowell. Near the beginning it is said, " Every 
descendant and connection of General Putnam is bound to 
protect and preserve his character and fame from unmerited 
reproach. He has a right, it is his duty, to call upon the 
prosecutor to produce evidence in support of the charges, 
or to retract them." That sentence will be sufficient to 
reveal the current idea of the whole article. But in the 
course of it he says, " Properly and strictly speaking there 
was no commander-in-chief in the battle." It may be ob- 
served, in passing, that this remark does not enure to Col- 
onel Prescott's benefit, whatever honor it may take from 
General Putnam. We do not credit Mr. Webster with his 
usual large-orbed wisdom in making such an assertion. We 
have no doubt whatever that the battle of Bunker Hill had 
a plan and a guiding head. Mr. Lowell, as we have just 



264 Life of Israel Putnam. 

seen, was decided on that point. Mr. Webster may have 
just been reading John Adams's letter about "four armies," 
or some similar piece of writing, and had not taken time 
to straighten the tangle ; but certainly he was not trying to 
prove that Colonel William Prescott was the commander-in- 
chief, though his distinguished name is sometimes slipped 
in as authority in that direction. At a later stage he 
might perhaps be more fairly quoted on that side, but in 
1818 it had not revealed itself to him that Prescott was 
chief. Forty-three years ought to suffice to give that 
revelation to him, if it was ever to be made. 

This may be a place as appropriate as any other for in- 
troducing an item of evidence that has never before been 
presented to the public. Last summer the writer received 
a pressing invitation from Hon. Daniel Putnam Tyler of 
Brooklyn, Connecticut, to visit him at his home, as he was 
seriously ill, and had some things which he wished to com- 
municate. Mr. Tyler was formerly Secretary of State in 
Connecticut, and will be well remembered by many in Massa- 
chusetts as an effective public speaker in political campaigns. 
He was much employed in this way, years ago, in various 
parts of New England. He was a great-grandson of Gen- 
eral Putnam, and his home has long been near General Put- 
nam's old residence. As a public speaker, he carried into 
his audience something of the energy and force and sym- 
pathetic contagion which his ancestor employed in matters 
of war. He had also a strong personal resemblance to 
General Putnam, so much so, that old men who had known 
the revolutionary leader were always reminding him of this 
resemblance. The story is told of his speaking once to a 
large audience in New Haven, and as the assembly was 
breaking up and scattering, an old man threaded his way 
through the crowd and took him by the hand most cor- 
dially, saying, " I need no introduction to you, sir ; you are 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 265 

the perfect embodiment of my old friend, General Putnam. 
My name is Noah Webster." 

The visit above referred to was paid, and Mr. Tyler had 
more things to say than he had strength to say, for he was 
suffering greatly from heart disease, of which he has since 
died.* But he felt most acutely the wrong which had been 
done to his noble-hearted and generous ancestor, by cer- 
tain modern writers. For long years he had borne in his 
memory an incident that greatly impressed and delighted 
him, and which he had often related to others. He felt 
now that his end was approaching ; and he had taken pains 
to write out this bit of history, and go before a justice of 
the peace and make oath to its truth. 

A word of explanation, before his statement is given. 
In some of the narratives of what transpired on the 17th of 
June, it may be remembered that when Warren was going 
upon the ground, just before the battle, he met William 
Eustis, then a medical student in his own office. Young 
Eustis was acting there that day as surgeon. He was after- 
wards Governor of Massachusetts, Member of Congress, 
and Secretary of War at Washington. The statement of 
Mr. Tyler runs as follows : 

I, Daniel P. Tyler, of Brooklyn, Windham County, Connecti- 
cut, depose and say that sometime during the year 1822 or 1823, 
Dr. William Eustis, then a Member of Congress from Massachu- 
setts, travelled with his family in his private carriage from Wash- 
ington to Boston, and on the night next preceding the interview 

* " Daniel P. Tyler of Brooklyn, who died on Saturday, November 6th, 
1875, at the age of seventy-seven, was one of the leading men of the State a 
generation ago. He was a great stump speaker, and did particularly vigorous 
work in the 'Tippecanoe and Tyler too' campaign. When a young man he 
was Lieutenant in the United States army for several years, and after settling 
down at Brooklyn as a lawyer, held the offices of Clerk of Courts for Wmdham 
County for fifteen years. County Judge, and Secretary of State. He was a 
great-grandson of Israel Putnam." — "Tolland Comity Press." 



266 Life of Israel Putnam. 

of which I shall speak, he lodged at Canterbury, six miles south 
of Brooklyn, and the weather being very warm, an early ride to 
Brooklyn, to breakfast there, was determined on. While at the 
breakfast-table he learned to his surprise that he was quite near 
the house of General Putnam and the place where he died, — sur- 
prised, because he had always understood that Putnam lived and 
died in Pomfret. Now, what was Pomfret became Brooklyn in 
1786. On learning this. Dr. Eustis inquired whether any of the 
descendants of Putnam lived near by, so that he could see them. 
A messenger was thereupon sent for me, with a request from the 
Doctor that I would come at once to the hotel. Being away 
from home when the messenger came, it was some time before 
I went to the hotel, and then I found the Doctor's carriage 
already standing before the door, and the family ready to leave. 
The Doctor introduced himself to me, and expressed regret that 
I had not come sooner, for he had much that he was anxious to 
communicate about the battle of Bunker Hill and General Put- 
nam, but said that the heat was so great that he could not delay 
his journey till later in the day, and consequently could not re- 
main to make the statement he wished. The difficulty, however, 
was overcome by sending in advance the carriage with the family, 
while Dr. Eustis and I followed leisurely in my own humble 
equipage. Our immediate destination was Thompson, distant 
seventeen miles. 

" The Doctor began the conversation by speaking of a pamph- 
let published by General Dearborn, purporting to give an ac- 
count of the battle of Bunker Hill, which he said was inaccurate 
in many respects, but more particularly in regard to what was 
said of General Putnam, and what he (the Doctor) himself knew 
to be incorrect. He said he was a student in Dr. Warren's 
office, that early in the morning of the battle Pjatnam was there, 
and with almost superhuman energy, acting as commander, and 
so far as he knew was alone recognized as such. It was not till 
many years after the battle that he heard it suggested that any other 
than Putnam had the chief command on that occasion. He said 
he knew that Colonel Prescott was intrusted with the defence of 
the redoubt, that he was an intrepid and gallant soldier, and 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 267 

defended that with great military skill and Spartan valor. The 
Doctor also said that he was absent from the country when Gen- 
eral Dearborn prepared his pamphlet ; and that as General Dear- 
born knew of his acquaintance with the scenes enacted on Bun- 
ker Hill, and of his subsequent connection with the military 
affairs of the country, having himself succeeded General Dear- 
born as Secretary of War, he might, he thought, have presumed 
without arrogance that General Dearborn would have submitted 
to his examination the manuscript ; and that had he done so, he 
(the Doctor) would have strongly advised against its publication. 

" The above is only a synopsis of the conversation, so inter- 
esting to me, which was held during our ride. The Doctor in- 
formed me that toward the close of the revolutionary war he 
was surgeon in the army at West Point when General Putnam 
commanded at that post. The foregoing is memoriter, but per- 
fectly fresh in my recollection. The only written memorandum I 
made is on a blank leaf of Humphrey's " Life of Putnam," and 
is as follows : ' 1822.' Went to Thompson with Dr. Eustis at his re- 
quest, so that he could tell me about Bunker Hill and General 
Putnam, — said he was at the battle, surgeon, — that General 
Dearborn's account of the battle was not correct, that General 
Putnam was the commander, and he didn't know of any other 
nor see any other acting as such. He said he was there all 
through the battle.' Daniel Putnam Tyler. 

" Dated Brooklyn, July 9th, 1875." 

" Windham County, ss. 
Then personally appeared Daniel Putnam Tyler, signer of the 
foregoing deposition, and made oath to the truth of the same, 
before me. Elias H. Main, Justice of the Peace." 

The value of this testimony, is enhanced by the fact, not 
only that it came from such a man as Governor William 
Eustis, but that it came from him as one burdened with a 
desire to deliver it, for the ends of personal justice and his- 
torical truth. It will be remembered by those who partici- 
pated in the scenes of the Bunker Hill Centennial at Bos- 
ton, that a unique and well preserved, but old-fashioned 



268 Life of Israel PatJiam. 

carriage of Governor Eustis passed in the procession. Mr. 
Tyler had read of this in the papers, and at the time of the 
writer's visit to Brooklyn, he was curious to know whether 
this might not be the identical carriage which he saw at 
Brooklyn in 1822. As Governor Eustis died in 1825, it is 
altogether likely that it was the same, though on this point 
we could give him no reliable information. 

We have shown, we trust, to the satisfaction of the 
reader, that the questions so earnestly discussed in 18 18 
were totally different from those forced upon us to-day. 
The claim that Colonel William Prescott had the chief 
command in the battle was not urged upon the public at- 
tention at all. That is a later assumption, having its origin 
somewhere between forty-three and one hundred years after 
the battle. This fact, of itself, we hold to be utterly fatal 
to the doctrine. If there were nothing else to be said about 
it except this one thing, it would be enough. A theory on 
such a subject that has to wait more than forty-three years 
for its birth — wait till most of the actors in the battle are 
dead, before it dares to be born — is destined, sooner or 
later, to die and be forgotten. It has no chance for any 
immortal place in human history. Some historical ques- 
tions are in their very nature secret and subtle, and hard to 
be resolved ; but the man who led the American army that 
long, bright summer day, on the heights of Charlestown, 
was not shut up in a cell, and did not wear a mask. He 
was moving boldly and openly in sight of heaven and earth, 
and the living men of that generation did not require forty- 
three years to find out who he was. 

And now we take another wide step and come down to 
the year 1849, "when Richard Frothingham, Esq., published 
his celebrated book, the " Siege of Boston." Thousands 
will remember the pleasant impression which that book 
made upon the public mind. It was a delightful book. It 



Btmker Hill Literature and Art. 269 

charmed the reader. It gathered up the minute facts, the 
old legends, the romantic incidents, which had lurked away 
in obscure volumes and narratives, or in unpublished manu- 
scripts drawn from dusty pigeon holes. Mr. Frothingham 
arranged and set in order all this diversified material, in a 
manner quiet and scholarly, and when the book was issued, 
many a reader was ready to say, " There ! that is the first 
book that ever gave us a complete history of Bunker Hill." 
He became at once an authority. Irving was writing his 
" Life of Washington," and Bancroft was going on with his 
" History of the United States," and it would seem, in both 
cases, tha,t these able authors said to themselves, "Mr. 
Frothingham has saved us the labor of an independent 
investigation, as to this critical and important period of our 
national history, and we will give him full credit, and take 
the substance of what he has written for our own volumes." 
Be it noticed, moreover, that Mr. Frothingham never in 
a single instance propounds this theory of Prescott's com- 
mand in any bold and defiant manner. It creeps in quietly 
in many passages, as though it were almost a matter of in- 
difference to him whether Prescott or Putnam shall be re- 
garded as chief commander. His style of argument is, 
that we have no express information that Putnam was ap- 
pointed to the command, and being from Connecticut, there 
would be serious difficulties (owing to the relations of the 
several States) in his taking command without an express 
order from General Ward; and it seems therefore most 
likely that Colonel William Prescott must be looked upon 
as chief commander. This, in general, is the way in which 
this scheme takes shape in Mr. Frothingham's delightful 
book, — very different from that rampant and audacious 
style of assertion in which we confront it in the pages of 
many later writers, who may be called Mr. Frothingham's 
pupils and followers. 



2/0 Life of Israel Putnam, 

Moreover, in the " Siege of Boston " General Putnam is 
nowhere abused and slandered. He is constantly recog- 
nized as a good and true man. There is not a single touch 
of the General Dearborn spirit and tone. His eminent 
services, his immense activities, his unquestionable bravery, 
are all acknowledged and dwelt upon. So predominant 
throughout the whole volume is this style of treatment, 
that Colonel Swett, in his second production (which will 
be soon noticed), was moved to say of Mr, Frothingham's 
method, " He has treated General Putnam's character with 
the utmost candor and kindness, as animals destined for 
the altar are pampered, to be sacrificed at the last." 

We do not wish to deny that between the years 1818 
and 1849, there had been, here and there, certain intima- 
tions and forerunners of this new theory of the command 
at Bunker Hill. There had been these droppings and sug- 
gestions along the way by one writer and another, on vari- 
ous occasions and at various times. It would unduly pro- 
long this narrative if we were to stop and pick up these 
scattered instances. But there is some general law about 
them. They do not as a common fact come from men who 
are disposed to slander or undervalue General Putnam's 
services in the battle. They spring out of that confusion 
and entanglement of thought, to which even such men as 
the illustrious John Adams had ministered, in his talk about 
" four armies," and about Putnam's being as independent 
of Ward as Ward was of him. The orations and addresses 
in the great Bunker Hill gatherings in 1825 and in 1843 
(at the completion of the monument), on the whole, min- 
istered to the same idea. 

It was not until 1849, when the "Siege of Boston" 
appeared, seventy-four years after the battle, that we had 
any fully constructed theory showing Colonel Prescott as 
chief commander in the battle ; and even then the theory 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 271 

came forth in such a gentle and winning way, with so large 
and generous an appreciation of General Putnam's immense 
services, that" the men who did not believe the theory at 
all could not be as cross and indignant as they wanted to be. 

But with Colonel Samuel Swett of Boston, then a man 
of over sixty years, the case was different. He had put 
himself forth in authorship thirty years before, and his judg- 
ment as a man, and as a military officer, was impugned by 
the speculations of Mr. Frothingham. His memory reached 
back almost to the revolutionary days. He had been hon- 
orably connected with the army in the war of 18 12, and he 
broke forth upon this new theory in a storm of indignation, 
and published his pamphlet to refute it ; which led to a re- 
joinder on the part of Mr. Frothingham. We do not pro- 
pose to dwell upon the merits or demerits of this contro- 
versy. 

We are concerned at this point, simply to show that al- 
most three-quarters of a century had passed away, — the 
men who fought the battle were in their graves, — the men 
who acted in the civil affairs of the nation had gone to their 
rest before this theory, in full form and shape, was launched 
upon the world. As already said, this circumstance alone 
is fatal to the idea. The living men of 1775 must have 
known the truth in the case, and in the earlier portions of 
this chapter we have recorded their verdict. That verdict 
will stand against all the waves and storms that may beat 
upon it. The history of this first great act of the revolu- 
tionary drama may abide for a time in this perverted form, 
incorporated as it is on the pages of some of our leading 
histories ; but other historians will arise, as the years pass 
on, who will return to the " old paths," and walk in the 
ways in which the fathers taught them to walk. 

In theological seminaries, where the dogmatic professor 
has any new and peculiar doctrines, theories or ideas to 



2/2 Life of Israel Putnam. 

broach, his most dangerous enemies are his eager and ad- 
miring pupils. They will sound abroad his new discoveries 
without any of the checks, the qualifications, the safe- 
guards, which the professor himself would throw around 
them. And something like this has been true in the pres- 
ent case. In the " Siege of Boston " the new discovery 
creeps forth very modestly. It is only the roaring of the 
" nightingale " and the " sucking-dove." It is not the 
bringing of the real lion upon the stage at all. General 
Putnam is still a most heroic, generous, admirable man. 
His services on that day of the battle are forever to be held 
in grateful remembrance. But there is a difficulty in see- 
ing how he could be exactly commander-in-chief. He 
would have made a good one, no doubt, if he could have 
been one, but then we have no written paper showing that 
Ward appointed him to that place. He never produced be- 
fore Colonel Prescott, or any other man, such a paper 
which would have entitled him to hold the chief command. 
There lies the difficulty. But let us never forget that Gen- 
eral Putnam was a brave old hero. He was not the pol- 
troon and coward that Dearborn said he was. Not by any 
means. He was ready to face the thickest dangers, and 
go where any other man dared to go, and to some places 
where hardly any other man did dare to go. We must all of 
us learn to love and admire brave old General Putnam. 

That is the general spirit and temper of Mr. Frothing- 
ham, and it is also the spirit of some who have followed his 
lead. When Irving wrote his " Life of Washington," he 
acknowledged his great indebtedness to Mr. Frothingham, 
and he followed quite faithfully, altogether too faithfully, 
his version of this most important action of the revolution- 
ary struggle. But Irving could not close that chapter 
without giving vent to his pent-up emotions, and he finds 
relief in a magnificent tribute to Putnam, which we quote. 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 273 

" Putnam also was a leading spirit throughout the affair ; one 
of the first to prompt and of the last to maintain it. He ap- 
pears to have been active and efficient at every point, — some- 
times fortifying, sometimes hurrying the reinforcements, inspirit- 
ing the men by his presence while they were able to maintain 
their ground, and fighting gallantly at the outpost to cover their 
retreat. The brave old man, riding about in the heat of the ac- 
tion, on this sultry day, ' with a hanger belted across his brawny 
shoulders, over a waistcoat without sleeves,' has been sneered 
at by a- contemporary as 'much fitter to lead a band of sickle 
men or ditchers than musketeers.' But this very description 
illustrates his character and identifies him with the times and the 
service. A yeoman warrior, fresh from the plough, in the garb 
of rural labor, a patriot, brave and generous, but rough and 
ready, who thought not of himself in time of danger, but ever 
ready to serve in any way, and to sacrifice official rank and self- 
glorification to the good of the cause. He was eminently a sol- 
dier for the occasion. His name has long been a favorite one 
with young and old, one of the talismanic names of the Revolu- 
tion, the very mention of which is like the sound of a trumpet. 
Such names are the precious jewels of our history, to be gar- 
nered up among the treasures of the nation and kept immaculate 
from the tarnishing breath of the cynic and the doubter." 

Bancroft, too, though he allowed himself to be led too 
obediently by another through this portion of his great 
work, does not go beyond his guide in any use of hard 
language. 

But there are multitudes of lesser pupils who have not 
had this discretion of silence. By them Putnam begins to be 
jostled about as if he were a mere intruder on that hard-fought 
field — rather in the way than otherwise — interfering all 
the while with arrangements that would have been better 
without him ; while on the other hand, out of the mists of 
one hundred years, begins at last to loom up the stately 
form of a great military hero, Colonel William Prescott, — 



274 Life of Israel Putnam. 

the man that always stayed a Colonel, while some fifteen 
or twenty of his associates were advanced to higher mili- 
tary positions. When an object is thus seen through the 
mist, it often grows upon us as the mist thickens, until the 
proportions become perfectly gigantic. The man that 
figured before us last year, in the writings of some men 
about Boston, in certain of the newspapers, and in orations 
and speeches, was of this prodigious character. General 
Israel Putnam, second in military command to Washington, 
was nothing to him, — a mere child in military knowledge 
and force. What this man might grow to before another 
centennial, if no check were put upon his enlargement, it is 
painful to think of. What he has already grown to may be 
seen in the following : 

" He [Prescott] was the hero of that blood-dyed summit, the 
midnight leader and guard, the morning sentinel, the orator of 
the opening strife, the cool and deliberate overseer of the whole 
struggle, the well-skilled marksman of the exact distance and the 
point of aim at which a shot was certain death ; he was the 
trusted chief, in whose bright eye and steady nerve men read 
their duty ; and when conduct, skill and courage could do no 
more, he was the merciful deliverer of the remnant. Prescott 
was the hero of the day, and wherever its tale is told, let him be 
its chieftain. Whose statue other than his should grace the 
monumental summit, beside, not beneath, that of Warren, the 
' volunteer ' ? " 

But it has been pleasant to observe, amidst all this noise 
and excitement, that there were men enough, Massachu- 
setts men, who still read the old history correctly, and were 
not to be stirred from their moorings by the waves that 
were beating about them. Samuel A. Drake, Esq., besides 
the contribution to centennial literature already noticed 
(the testimony of the British officers), prepared a pamphlet on 
the battle itself, in which General Putnam still held his old 



Blinker Hill Literature and Art. 275 

and true position as commander. W. W. Wheildon, Esq., 
of Concord, wrote a " New History of the Battle of Bunker 
Hill," which is clear and excellent. He takes no extreme 
ground, but sums up his conclusion on the point now before 
us in the following words : 

"After what has been said, perhaps it is unnecessary to 
express opinions on the specific question of commander. It is 
assumed that this question has been finally settled, and it is now 
very boldly asserted — the statement resting on a basis of asser- 
tions and opinions — that ' it is certain and now beyond all ques- 
tion that he [Prescott] had the command of the day and the action,^ 
This statement ignores all the fact and argument on the other 
side, which have never been satisfactorily answered, and we 
think is distinctly untrue." 

The italics used in this quotation are Mr. Wheildon's, 
and the passage may be found on p. 50. 

In closing this extended review, covering in a rapid way 
the century which has passed since the battle, we can- 
not resist the general impression that the literary process, 
so far as regards Colonel Prescott, began with his near 
friends, and the first effort was to relieve him from the 
charge of not having played his part well in that action. 
Manifestly he did not show military capacity like the other 
local and subordinate commanders, Stark, Reed and Knowl- 
ton. The current conversation of men in the times immedi- 
ately following, both in the army and out of the army, we 
have no doubt whatever, if it could be faithfully reported to 
us, would run largely in this wise : Prescott was brave and did 
all he could, but he was not equal to the occasion. He did 
not know how to command men, and nerve them up to 
their duty. If he had done as well that day as the other 
commanders, the result would have been different. It is in 
this way that we explain the ominous silence about him in 
the contemporary literature, for that " unbounded applause 



276 Life of Israel Putnam. 

of his contemporaries," of which Mr. Frothingham speaks, 
is just the one tiling which we do not find, and the histori- 
cal student may be challenged to find it. He was not 
rudely treated by the men of his generation, for they saw 
in him a man of personal dignity and worth, who had 
shown a large measure of individual courage, had remained 
steadfastly at his post of duty, and had done the best he 
could. But what they said one to another in private, is 
made manifest largely in a negative way, by that oppres- 
sive silence which broods over the general literature of 
those times, and by the fact that he was not promoted. 

Let it be understood, that when we speak of contempora- 
ries, we do not mean Prescott's kindred and personal 
friends. We do not accept the literature that is stored up 
in the " Prescott Memorial " and such like compilations. 
Nor are the affidavits that were called out in 18 18, from 
soldiers that were in the battle, of much consequence. 
Such as they were, they carry vastly more testimony for 
Putnam than for Prescott. But they were extremely con- 
tradictory and unsatisfactory. They show us clearly how 
little confidence can be placed, after a long lapse of years, 
in the recollections and impressions of men as excited and 
absorbed as were those soldiers at Bunker Hill. We could 
find hundreds of men to-day, who have lived their " three- 
score years and ten," who would be ready to go before a 
magistrate and make oath that the ordinary snow storms 
of sixty years ago were twice or three times greater than 
the ordinary snow storms of these passing years. 

When we talk of "contemporaries" and of contempo- 
rary literature, it is meant that one shall go out upon the 
broad field of the world, far away from circles of admiring 
kindred and local glory, and examine books, public records, 
newspapers, letters passing from man to man, in the large 
intercourse of society, all forms and varieties of testimony, 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 277 

which the living men of that generation have left behind 
for our instruction. And when we bring Colonel Prescott 
to this broad and comprehensive test, the "unbounded 
applause " is not found. In the case of General Putnam it 
is most easily found. We have furnished evidence in this 
volume to show this clearly, and far more testimony could 
be brought were it needed. But we challenge any man to 
hunt up a similar record, or one in any degree correspond- 
ing, for Colonel Prescott. So far from this, the silence 
respecting him in those years that cluster immediately 
about the battle is much more marked and significant 
than was anticipated when we began this investigation. 
Let us recur once more, by way of illustration, to the tes- 
timony of Samuel Adams. He actually had to come to the 
camp at Cambridge, about the middle of August, before he 
heard of " the valor of Prescott." * It is freely admitted 
that Prescott exhibited valor at Bunker Hill. That fact 
has been recognized again and again in this volume. But 
it was in such connections and associations that it had 
not reported itself to Mr. Adams at Philadelphia, in the 
nearly two months intervening — to Sam. Adams, who 
studied every fact of those days, who scrutinized every 
movement and event, with a diligence almost unparalleled. 
John Adams says of his illustrious cousin, " Samuel Adams, 

* And here we have another instance of that significant silence of which 
we have spoken. In the three large volumes of Mr. Wells's " Life of Samuel 
Adams," containing the letters and many papers from the pen of him who is 
sometimes called " the Father of the Revolution," the only reference to Col- 
onel Prescott seems to be in the passage above quoted. When we consider 
that Adams and Prescott were from the same colony, and that Mr. Adams 
had laid it down as a rule, that every instance of merit belonging to a Massa- 
chusetts officer should " be improved as far as decency will admit of it," it is 
remarkable that he should never again mention him in his letters and other 
writings. If he were really the chief commander at Bunker Hill, and the 
great man shown to us in the modern books and pamphlets, he would have 
been " improved." Mr. Adams lived on to the year 1803, and was in public 
life until 1797. 



2/8 Life of Israel Putnam. 

to my certain knowledge, from 1758 to 1775, that is, for 
seventeen years, made it his constant rule to watch the rise 
of every brilliant genius," etc. But he had not heard of 
Prescott's valor until he reached Cambridge, about two 
months after the battle. 

In contrast with this, notice how Putnam moved across 
those years. On the 19th of June, 1775, at Philadelphia, 
when they knew nothing as yet of the battle of Bunker Hill, 
in the choice of the first four Major-Generals, he was tman- 
imously taken by the Continental Congress, and lifted at 
once over David Wooster, Joseph Spencer, John Thomas, 
Seth Pomeroy, William Heath, John Whitcomb, Joseph 
Warren, Joseph Frye, all of whom were higher in military 
rank than he, i. e., either higher in the nature of their office, 
or earlier in receiving their commissions for the same office. 
The Continental Congress indeed did not know of the three 
last-named as having been raised to the offices they held, 
for that choice by the Massachusetts Congress had just 
been made. Nor did it know of Warren's death. But of 
the five others the Congress knew all the facts, and some 
of these men were very able officers ; and yet Putnam was 
taken from a lower grade and placed above them all. 

After the battle, we have seen how the men of England 
and the men of Philadelphia were drinking his health, how 
full the air was with his name and his deeds, how large 
were the trusts placed in his hands, and how nobly he met 
them. To talk of the " unbounded applause of his contem- 
poraries " in his case brings words into some reasonable 
connection with facts. But in the case of Prescott it is 
like having a band of music to marshal a laborer to his 
daily toil. 

We repeat, that the first efforts in a literary way, with 
regard to Colonel Prescott, seem to have been to excuse 
him, to apologize for him, to show how other men were 



Bunker Hill Literature and Art. 279 

more to blame than he ; and from this earliest form of apol- 
ogetics, little by little, one man taking up the pen where 
another laid it down, the process has gone on, until at 
length with a certain class of writers he is the great man of 
that day, overtowering Putnam, Stark, Reed, Knowlton and 
everybody else. But this is the " unbounded applause " of 
1875, and not of 1775. If any student of history, working 
upon the broad field, can certify to this " applause " in the 
literature of the last century, or find any evidence, outside 
of a small circle of men, that Prescott ever received the 
high plaudits of his contemporaries as a military leader, he 
will confer a special favor if he will report his evidence as 
soon as may be. 

We have made frequent references in our previous nar- 
rative to Daniel Putnam and his testimony, as contained in 
the " Connecticut Historical Collections " (Vol. I. pp. 229- 
250). In concluding this chapter, we will copy from that 
article the sentences which relate to the interviews between 
Putnam and Prescott, previous to the battle, and their con- 
versations on the projected enterprise. 

" One afternoon, as Putnam had been marking out a new line 
on which his men had just commenced work, Colonel Prescott 
and Colonel Gardiner came up. ' I wish, General,' said Pres- 
cott, ' your men were digging nearer Boston.' Putnam replied 
that he wished so too, and hoped ere long we should all be of 
one mind 

" Next day [after the exchange of the prisoners], there was 
quite a levee of officers at Putnam's quarters to talk about the 
exchange, etc. He related to them all the particulars, and turn- 
ing to Colonel Prescott said, ' Colonel, I saw ground yesterday 
that may suit your purpose. I suppose you have not forgotten 
your remark of the other day about digging; but more of this 
another time.' .... 

" It was further stated by Putnam that there had been an un- 
derstanding between him and Colonel Prescott that the latter 



28o Life of Israel Putnam. 

should have a part in the expedition, if it should ever be under- 
taken. General Ward was apprised of this, and Prescott and 

all his regiment was ordered on that service [Three 

hundred went that night, and the rest were expected to come the 
next morning with the reinforcements.] 

" The day before the battle of Bunker Hill, I noticed an un- 
usual stir among the troops at Cambridge. Putnam's regiment 
was under arms, and I was informed by the Adjutant that a de- 
tachment had been made from it for ' secret service ; ' but what 
at the time impressed my mind most strongly, was the prepara- 
tion my father himself was making. With his own hands he pre- 
pared cartridges for his pistols, took out the old flints, and put in 
new. While he was doing this, Colonel Prescott came in, and ob- 
serving what he was about, said, in a low tone, ' I see, General, 
you are making preparation, and we shall be ready at the time.' " 

Now, this is a perfectly straightforward and circumstantial 
story, from one who had the best opportunities of knowing 
whereof he affirmed, and who approved himself in after life 
an upright and honorable man. Has that story ever been 
historically disproved .-* Is there a single well established 
fact to show its falsity t We know of none. The story is 
in entire harmony with all we really hiow of the events of 
those days. We are satisfied that it will stand the test of 
the closest examination. And the closer the examination 
the better. There is nothing to fear in this matter, except 
from loose, rambling statements. The only danger is, that 
'men will continue to talk and write out of their imagina- 
tions, out of their preconceived impressions, without going 
to the records. 

And by this story, what we have claimed is made plain. 
It is not likely that Prescott would have had any prominent 
part at all in the battle of Bunker Hill, except by favor of 
General Putnam ; and if Putnam had had the same business 
to do over again a fortnight after, he would not probably 
have chosen Prescott as his assistant. 



CHAPTER XII. 

FOUR YEARS MORE OF ARMY LIFE. 

Putnam chosen to be near Washington. — Honored and Trusted by Him.— 
Operations during the Summer and Autumn of 1775, and following Win- 
ter. — Occupation of Dorchester Heights. — March 5th. — Evacuation of 
Boston, March 17th. — Putnam in full Command at New York. — Letters. 
— Battle of Long Island. — Sent to Philadelphia. — Headquarters on the 
Hudson. — Ride down the Stone Steps. — Struck with Paralysis, 1779. — 
Compelled to leave the Army. 

IT is, of course, a very unusual circumstance in writing a 
man's biography, to spend so large a portion of the vol- 
ume in unfolding the facts and events of some two months 
of a long life. But we ask no apology for doing this in the 
present instance. The work was made necessary for the 
ends of justice and truth. 

It may seem a sudden transition to turn from this theatre 
of controversy and argument into the more quiet strain of 
simple narrative. But we shall soon find enough to inter- 
est us. The great war of independence has only just 
opened. Exciting events are to follow in quick succession 
for years to come. The siege of Boston has not yet ended. 
For months the American army is to be chiefly concen- 
trated here. 

On the 2d day of July, Washington reached the head- 
quarters of the American camp at Cambridge. There was 
great rejoicing at his arrival. He brought with him the 
commissions for the four Major-Generals appointed by the 
Continental Congress (June 17th and 19th), viz., Artemas 
Ward, Charles Lee, Philip Schuyler and Israel Putnam. 

281 



282 Life of Israel Putnam. [i775-79- 

There was lodged in his hands by Congress a certain dis- 
cretionary power, as to the delivery of these commissions 
on his arrival. If he encountered rumors unfavorable to 
any of his appointees, he might delay or withhold the com- 
missions. Almost immediately upon his reaching the camp, 
he gave to General Putnam his commission. He had no 
doubt or misgiving in his case. It is true, in his letter af- 
terwards sent to Congress, explaining his action, it is im- 
plied that when he delivered the commission to Putnam, 
he expected to deliver them all ; but he soon found such 
complaints as to the others, that for a time he withheld the 
commissions. There is, however, in this letter to Congress 
no expression of regret that he had given his commission to 
Putnam. Plis case appears to have been perfectly clear to 
his own mind. 

The following extract from General Washington's letter 
to the Continental Congress, dated " Camp at Cambridge, 
July 19th, 1775," will explain these complications among 
the officers, in consequence of the appointments made at 
Philadelphia. This letter in full is in Force's " Archives," 
(4th series, Vol. II. pp. 1624-27). 

"The great dissatisfaction expressed on this subject, and the 
apparent danger of throwing the army into the utmost disorder, 
together with the strong representations of the Provincial Con- 
gress, have induced me to retain the commissions in my hands, 
until the pleasure of Congress should be further known, except 
General Putnam's, which was given the day I came into camp, 
and before I was apprised of these uneasinesses. In such a step, 
I must beg the Congress will do me the justice to believe that I 
have been actuated solely by a regard to the public good. I 
have not, and could not have, any private attachments ; every 
gentleman in appointment w^as an entire stranger to me, but from 
character ; I must therefore rely upon the candor of the Congress 
for their favorable construction of my conduct in this particular. 



JEr. s7-6i.] Fozcr Years more of Army Life. 283 

General Spencer was so much disgusted at the preference given 
to General Putnam, that he left the army without visiting me, or 
making known his intentions in any respect. General Pomeroy 
had also retired before my arrival, occasioned, as is said, by some 
disappointment from the Provincial Congress. General Thomas 
is much esteemed and earnestly desired to continue in the ser- 
vice, and as far as my opportunities have enabled me to judge, 
I must join in the general opinion that he is an able, good officer, 
and his resignation would be a public loss. The postponing him 
to Pomeroy and Heath, whom he has commanded, would make his 
continuance very difficult, and probably operate in his mind as 
the like circumstance has done on that of Spencer." * 

There is a large volume of testimony in this letter, if 
we will only search it out. Washington heard, in that 
American camp, no such insinuations against General Put- 
nam, as certain men in modern times are fond of slipping 
into their narratives. On the contrary, he did hear, very 
speedily, such things said of General Artemas Ward that 

* In "American Archives " (4th series, Vol. II. p. 11 14) we have the order 
and rank of those higher officers of the army, appointed in June by the Con- 
tinental Congress, out of which appointments such hard feelings were raised 
among some of the officers. The list stands thus : 

" George Washington, Esq., General and commander-in-chief of all the 
forces raised or to be raised for the defence of American liberty. 

^^ Artemas Ward, Esq., First Major-General. 

" Charles Lee, Esq., Second Major-General. 

^^ Philip Schuyler, Esq., Third Major-General. 

" Is7'ael Putnam, Esq., Fourth Major-General. 

" Seth Pomeroy, Esq., First Brigadier-General. 

" Richard Montgomery, Esq., Second Brigadier-General. 

'^ David Wooster, Esq., Third Brigadier-General. 

" William Heath, Esq., Fourth Brigadier-General. 

^^ Joseph Spencer, Esq., Fifth Brigadier-General. 

" John Thomas, Esq., Sixth Brigadier-General. 

" John Sullivan, Esq., Seventh Brigadier-General. 

^^ Nathaniel Greene, Esq., Eighth Brigadier-General. 

" Horatio Gates, Esq., Adjutant-General, and with the rank of Brigadier- 
General." 



284 Life of Israel Putnam. [i775-79- 

he hesitated. His commission was at length dehvered, and 
he was removed to Roxbury to take charge of the right 
wing of the army, while General Lee was placed in charge 
of the left wing, and Putnam was put in command of the 
reserves at the centre, near the person of the commander- 
in-chief. During the centennial scenes in Boston last year, 
there was one writer at least, who ventured to insinuate that 
Putnam was placed over these reserves near General Wash- 
ington, to keep him out of mischief; and that the other 
Major-Generals had more honorable and responsible posi- 
tions assigned them than he. But he was evidently a man 
who knew how to read military history to suit his own pur- 
poses. The general understanding is that Putnam, in this 
American camp, held the highest post of honor and trust 
under Washington. 

Daniel Putnam, who still remained with his father, and 
was with him in the scenes of his daily life, tells us on what 
terms Washington and Putnam stood to each other during 
that summer of 1775, and the winter of 1775-76. 

" From the arrival of Washington at Cambridge till the enemy 
left Boston, his and Putnam's families [General Putnam's second 
wife was now with him] were not only on the most friendly terms, 
but their intercourse was very frequent. Not a week passed but 
they dined together at the quarters of one or the other. One day 
in the month of September, General Washington at his table gave 
for a toast, ' A speedy and honorable peace,' and all appeared to 
join with good will in the sentiment. Not many days after, at 
Putnam's quarters, addressing himself to Washington he said, 
* Your Excellency, the other day, gave us " a speedy and honora- 
ble peace," and I, as in duty bound, drank it ; and now I hope, 
sir, you will not think it an act of insubordination, if I ask you 
to drink one of rather a different character ; I will give you, sir, 
A long and moderate war.' It has been truly said of Washing- 
ton, that he seldom smiled and almost never laughed ; but the 
sober and sententious manner in which Putnam delivered his 



^T. 57-61.] Four Years more of Army Life. 285 

sentiment, and its seeming contradiction to all his practice, came 
so unexpectedly upon Washington that he did laugh, more 
heartily than ever I remember to have seen him before or after ; 
but presently he said, * You are the last man, General Putnam, 
from whom I should have expected such a toast ; you, who are all 
the time urging vigorous measures, to plead now for a lo7ig and, 
what is still more extraordinary, a moderate war, seems strange 
indeed.' Putnam replied that ' The measures he advised were 
calculated to prevent, not to hasten, a peace, which would only 
be a rotten thing, and last no longer than it divided us, I expect 
nothing but a long war, and I would have it a moderate one that 
we may hold out till the mother country becomes willing to cast 
us off forever.' Washington did not soon forget this toast ; for 
years after, and more than once, he reminded Putnam of it." 

There was another occasion in the autumn of that year 
when Washington laughed. The story is pleasantly told 
in the recent " Life of General Nathaniel Greene " (Vol. I. 
p. 120). Dr. Benjamin Church, who in April, May and 
June had been specially put forward as a true and earnest 
patriot, who had been a member of the Massachusetts Pro- 
vincial Assembly and a member of the Committee of Safety, 
was found at length to be consorting with the enemy. At 
first it was only known that some one in the garb of a friend 
must be doing this, — that an evil influence was abroad, 
and the authorities were trying to trace it to its source. 
There was a woman in the case, but it was not known ex- 
actly who she was. A woman had been known to deliver 
a letter written in cipher, which letter had been detected 
and stopped, and was in the hands of the authorities ; but 
who the man was that wrote it, or who the woman was that 
carried it was not known, though they had some signs and 
marks by which to trace her. Great had been the efforts 
to find the woman. Finally Putnam was commissioned to 
undertake the business. One day, as Washington was 
looking from the chamber windows of the Cragie House, 



286 Life of Israel Putnam. [i77S-79. 

Putnam came in sight on horseback, riding somewhat furi- 
ously, with a woman behind him. The sight was so comi- 
cal that Washington burst into laughter. Putnam dis- 
mounted, and with strong arm brought the woman into the 
house, and they both so vigorously threatened her that she 
revealed the secret on the spot, and the man was no other 
than Dr. Benjamin Church. Here was an element of dan- 
ger, new and unexpected. Church was arrested, tried be- 
fore the Massachusetts Congress, and afterwards imprisoned 
in Connecticut. 

No very active military movements on either side were at- 
tempted during that summer and fall. The British were shut 
up in Boston, or at least inside of Charlestown Neck, and they 
were in no mood to try the experiment of coming out from 
that retreat. On the other side Washington was introduc- 
ing military discipline into the American camp, and pre- 
paring the men to act as true soldiers. The cares that 
were rolled upon him when first coming into his respon- 
sible office were many and various, and some of them very 
burdensome, and it was best to get ready before any great 
offensive movement should be attempted. 

But while no battles were fought, and no great enterprises 
attempted on either side during those months of summer 
and autumn, hardly a day passed in which little collisions 
of one sort and another did not occur along the skirmish 
lines, and the drums often beat to arms, that the men might 
be ready for such emergencies as might arise. 

Mr. Frothingham, from Chapter IX. of his " Siege of 
Boston," onward for some chapters, has traced with minute 
care this course of daily events. It is inconsistent with 
the purpose of this volume that we should linger long upon 
this period ; but it may enliven our work, if we pick out a 
few entries here and there from the diary before mentioned 
and quoted. It is not without interest for us to know what 



JET. 57-61.] Four Years more of Army Life. 287 

kind of sermons were listened to by those American sol- 
diers gathered about Boston. Mr. Haskell has indicated 
many of these texts, and we shall, in a few instances, place 
in brackets the words of Scripture corresponding to his 
figures. It is commonly understood that the text will 
point to the subject of the sermon, though this is not an 
invariable rule in our day. 

" July 4th, Tuesday. — This morning our people took four 
horses from the British. In the afternoon a party were ordered 
to Lechmere's Point to intrenching 

" July 6ih, Thursday. — This day Rev. Mr, Cleaveland, our 
chaplain, came into the camp. Attended prayers at our bar- 
racks. In the evening a man deserted from our army to the 
enemy 

" y^tily 8th, Saturday. — This morning at 3 o'clock our people 
at Roxbury went down upon the neck, and rushed upon the 
guard. They retreated. Our men set fire to the guard-house. 
They made a heavy fire upon our party, which was returned. A 
smart engagement ensued upon both sides. Our lines manned 
for two hours. 

" yuly gth, Sunday. — This morning our chaplain came and 
preached in our regiment, from 2 Chronicles, vi. 34. [" If thy 
people go out to war against their enemies, by the way that thou 
shalt send them, and they pray unto thee' toward this city which 
thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name ; 
then hear thou from the heavens their prayer and their supplication 
and maintain their cause."] In the afternoon from Deuteronomy 
xxiii. 9. ["When the host goeth forth against thine enemies, 
then keep thee from every wicked thing."] A flag came from the 
enemy with a packet by General Lee. A man in a neighboring 
regiment was whipped twenty stripes for striking an officer 

" July 12th, Wednesday. — This morning our troops at Rox- 
bury went down to Long Island, took eighteen men that were 
tending cattle on the island, and brought off nineteen head of 
horned cattle and one hundred sheep. In the afternoon had a 



288 Life of Israel Putnam. [i775-79- 

smart shower of rain with hea\^ thunder, were something wet in 

our tents 

" jfuly i6th, Sunday. — This morning heard a sermon from 
Ephesians, V. i6 ["Redeeming the time, because the days are 
evil "] ; in the afternoon from Judges, v. 23 [" Curse ye Meroz, 
said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants 
thereof, because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the 
help of the Lord against the mighty."] " 

July 1 8th was something of a high day on Prospect Hill. 
The statement which the Continental Congress had pre- 
pared and issued, justifying themselves and the Colonies 
for the steps taken, was first read in the hearing of the sol- 
diers. Then a new flag was unfurled, with appropriate 
exercises. Mr. Haskell thus describes the scene : 

" yuly i8th, Tuesday. — This morning at 6 o'clock the grand 
manifest from the Continental Congress was read to the forces in 
and about Prospect Hill (which were assembled on said hill) 
by the Rev. Mr. Leonard, chaplain to General Putnam's force. 
On the hill our standard was presented with this motto : * Appeal 
to Heaven with the American arms.' After it was read Mr. 
Leonard made a short prayer, then we were dismissed with three 
cheers, the firing of a cannon, and a war-whoop by the Indi- 
ans.* .... 

^^ytily 20th, Thursday. — This day is a fast appointed by the 
Continental Congress. [It was appointed by the suggestion of 
Governor Trumbull of Connecticut, in a letter to Washington, 
who recommended it to Congress.] .... Heard a sermon in 
the morning from Psalms, 1. 15 [ "And call upon me in the day 
of trouble : I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me "] ; in 
the afternoon from Ecclesiastes, vii. 14, [" In the day of pros- 
perity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider : God also 

* " Apart, in a thick wood, near where the Charles enters the bay, stood the 
wigwams of about fifty domiciliated Indians of the Stockbridge tribe. They 
were armed with bows and arrows as well as guns, and were accompanied by 
their squaws and little ones." — Bancroft, Vol. VIII. p. 43. 



^T. s7-6i.] Four Years more of Army Life. 289 

hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man 
should find nothing after him.] " . . . . 

" July 24th, Monday. — To-day all the troops under command 
of Brigadier-General Putnam, except Colonel Little's regiment, 
were ordered to march from Prospect Hill to be stationed else- 
where. Their vacancies are to be supplied with troops from 
Cambridge, Winter Hill, etc., under the command of Brigadier- 
General Greene." 

The entry just copied marks the beginning of the new 
arrangement of the troops, under General Washington's 
order. It caused great changes in the location of the vari- 
ous military bodies. It brought General Nathaniel Greene 
over from Roxbury to be put in command of this impor- 
tant post of duty at Prospect Hill. 

The diary runs on for a year, but perhaps we have quoted 
sufficiently from it to give the reader a taste of military life 
in 1775. It is strictly a diary, for hardly a day passes with- 
out its record, longer or shorter. 

We have now reached a time when General Putnam has 
been taken out of all the entanglements of Bunker Hill 
jealousies, and has reached a fair and open field for the 
illustration of his character and military abilities. We 
shall have an opportunity to study him, not only in the light 
of the weighty enterprises which his fellow-men living in his 
daily companionship saw fit to entrust to him, but (what is 
also important in making up our estimates) we shall have 
the privilege of reading and criticising the letters which he 
wrote touching the enterprises which he had on his hands. 
If he is a noisy, coarse, boastful, blustering man, we shall 
find some evidence of it in his letters. If, on the other 
hand, he is a man of strong and sound understanding, 
clearly comprehending the matters he has in charge, and 
treating them with solid dignity and uniform propriety, we 
shall have opportunities for the discovery of these qualities. 

19 



290 Life of Israel Putnam. [i77S-79' 

We cannot undertake to go minutely through the whole of 
his remaining military life. It would make our work too 
voluminous. But now that he is setting off upon an im- 
portant career, the chosen companion of Washington, we 
will, at least in the earlier periods, furnish facts and mate- 
rials enough whereby he may be fairly and fully judged. 

We have freely conceded that he was not a man of lite- 
rary culture ; and for the honor of the country which he 
served, he would not be guilty of bad penmanship and bad 
spelling in his public communications. He employed an 
amanuensis to write for him the letters which he dictated. 
But the real life in any piece of writing is to be found in 
its thoughts and ideas. Some of the identical letters which 
he sent from the military camp may still be seen in the 
twenty manuscript volumes of the " Trumbull Papers," * 
which repose in great dignity and security in the library 
of the Massachusetts Historical Society. That he did not 
furnish the ideas for those letters, we are not aware that 
any one has ever charged. When we read them, we shall 
find it hard to convince ourselves that they did not ema- 
nate from a modest, clear-headed man, who perfectly under- 

* The " Trumbull Papers," so called, are a part of the State papers of Con- 
necticut, belonging to the period of Governor Jonathan Trumbull's administra- 
tion, 1769-83, covering and more than covering the whole revolutionary era. 
Near the close of the last century, a Mr. David Trumbull, acting as adminis- 
trator of an estate, found these documents on his hands, and gave them to the 
Massachusetts Historical Society, without duly considering the question 
whether he had a right to send out of the State such papers as these, or 
whether any society out of the State had a right to receive them. If they 
were only printed and published as they ought to be, because of their great 
importance, then historical students might have access to them, and it would 
not matter so much who owned the manuscripts. But they are still kept in 
their original form ; and any one going to consult them is met by such con- 
ditions, that he is likely to turn back at the very portals. The Massachu- 
setts Historical Society has so hedged itself about with rules, that practically 
it holds these State papers of Connecticut for its almost exclusive use and 
interpretation. 



^T. 57-61.] Four Years more of Army Life. 291 

stood what he was writing about, and knew how to express 
himself in few words, but in a style everywhere marked by 
courtesy and dignity. But first of all, to show that General 
Putnam still kept up some of his old activities about Boston, 
we have the following extract from a letter written about 
him from Cambridge, December i8th, 1775, and published 
in Force's "Archives " (4th Series, Vol. IV. p. 313) : 

"Yesterday being dark and cloudy, General Putnam broke 
ground with four hundred men on Lechmere's Point, at 10 o'clock 
in the morning. The mist was so great as to prevent the enemy 
from discovering what he was about until 12, when it cleared up, 
and opened to their view our whole party at the point, and an- 
other at the causeway throwing a new bridge over the creek that 
forms the island at high water. The Scarborough ship-of-war, which 
lay off the point, immediately poured in upon our men a broad- 
side. The enemy from Boston threw in many shells, and obliged 
us to decamp from the point, with two men badly wounded. The 
bridge, however, was raised by the brave old General, and was 
completed last night. The garrison at Cobble Hill were ordered 
to return the ship's fire, which they did, and soon obliged her to 
heave tight upon her springs and to cease firing." 

The first letter* which we find of his, illustrating this 
particular period, was one written a little before the time 
of the above-named expedition, and is as follows : 

"Camp in Cambridge, Dec. ist, 1775. 
"Sir: I shall esteem it a particular favor if your Excellency 
will be so obliging as to recommend my worthy friend. Colonel 
Henry Babcock, to the Honorable Continental Congress, to be 
appointed to the rank of Brigadier-General in the Continental 
army. I have been upon service with him several campaigns in 
the last war, and have seen him in action behave with great spirit 
and fortitude when he had command of a regiment. He has 
this day been very serviceable in assisting me in quelling a 
mutiny, and bringing back a number of deserters. 

* "American Archives," 4th Series, Vol. III. p. 182. 



292 Life of Israel PiUnam. [i775-79. 

" Your Excellency well knows I am in great want of a Briga- 
dier-General in my division, and such a one as I can put confi- 
dence in and rely upon. I know of no man who will fill the 
vacancy with more honor than the gentleman above named. 

" I have the honor to be, with great truth and regard, your 
Excellency's most obedient, most humble servant, 

"Israel Putnam, M. G. 

" His Excellency General Washington." 

To show how the British found themselves situated in 
Boston during this same month of December, take the fol- 
lowing " Advices " received in England from America to 
December 14th, 1775 : 

"General ffowehzs barely six thousand effective men at Bos- 
ton. The fortifications begun to be erected from water to water, 
within the N'eck of Boston, he has been obliged to abandon for 
want of men sufficient to perform the work. 

"General Clinton preserves his post at Bunker Hill. The 
provincials have abandoned Ploughed Hill, but the regulars 
have not taken possession of it. The situation of the troops at 
Bunker Hill is truly deplorable ; much snow, north-east winds, 
etc., no fire, poor clothing, salt provisions, etc., etc. 

" The distress of the troops and people at Boston exceed the 
possibility of description. There are advices in town of Decem- 
ber 14th; not a coal ship was then arrived. The inhabitants and 
troops literally starving with cold. They had taken the pews out 
of all the houses of worship for fuel ; had pulled down empty 
houses, etc., and were then digging up the timber at the wharves 
for firing ; very poor clothing, and so scarce of provisions they 
have been eating horse flesh for some time."* 

That winter of 1775-76, like this its centennial sister of 
1875-76, set in with great severity of cold, but in its later 
stages was rather an open and mild one. There was grad- 
ually maturing in the mind of Washington a scheme for 
driving the British out of the town. He had some ear- 

* " American Archives," 4th Series, Vol. III. p. 266. 



^T. 57-61.] Four Years more of Army Life. 293 

lier schemes which the winter probably did not enable 
him to carry out. It was so cold in November and Decem- 
ber, that he began to lay some plans, founded upon the idea 
that the inland waters would be covered with solid ice, in 
which he was probably disappointed. The following letter* 
to General Artemas Ward will explain what was passing in 
his mind in November : 

" Cambridge, November 17th, 1775. 
" Sir : As the season is fast approaching when the bay be- 
tween us and Boston will, in all probability, be close shut up, 
thereby rendering any movement upon the ice as easy as though 
no water was there ; and as it is more than probable that General 
Howe^ when he gets the expected reinforcements, will endeavor 
to relieve himself from the disgraceful confinement in which the 
ministerial troops have been all the summer, common prudence 
dictates the necessity of guarding our camps wherever they are 
most assailable. For this purpose I wish you. General Thomas^ 
General Spencer and Colonel Putnam, to meet me at your quar- 
ters to-morrow at 10 o'clock, that we may examine the ground 
between your work at the mill and SewaWs Point, and direct 
such batteries as may appear necessary, for the security of your 
camp on that side, to be thrown up without loss of time. I have 
long had it upon my mind that a successful attempt might be 
made, by way of surprise, on Castle William. From every ac- 
count there are not more than three hundred men in that place. 
The whale-boats, therefore, which you have, and such as could be 
sent to you, would easily transport eight hundred or one thou- 
sand, which with a very moderate share of conduct and resolu- 
tion might, I should think, bring off the garrison, if not the stores. 
I wish you to discuss this matter, under the rose, with officers on 
whose judgment and spirit you can rely. Something of this sort 
may show how far the men are to be depended upon. I am with 
respect, sir, your very humble servant, 

" George Washington." 
"To Major-General Artemas Ward." 

* " American Archives," 4th Series, Vol. III. p. 1593. 



294 ^^f^ ^f Israel Ptttnam. [1775-79. 

It will be noticed in this letter that Washington men- 
tions Colonel Putnam, as a man whom he would like to 
have invited to this interview. This was the Rufus Put- 
nam before mentioned, a cousin of Israel, and a Lieutenant- 
Colonel when the battle of Bunker Hill was fought. He 
has already been promoted, and has become one whose 
practical judgment is greatly relied upon in the laying out 
of fortifications and the like. On the nth of February 
following, this Colonel Putnam submitted, at General Wash- 
ington's request, plans for the operations which were soon 
to be set in motion. 

In Force's "Archives" (4th Series, Vol. HI. p. 1194) we 
have the record of a council of war, held at headquarters in 
Cambridge. The heading reads as follows : 

"At a Council of General Officers held at headquarters in 
Cambridge, February i6th, 1776, Present, his Excellency George 
Washington; Major-Generals Ward, Putnam ; Brigadier-Generals 
Thomas, Heath, Spencer, Sullivan, Gates J'' 

We have here a clear illustration of what was regarded 
as a council of war after General Washington came to Cam- 
bridge. None but Generals were present at such a meet- 
ing. We have spoken in a previous chapter of the council 
of war held at Cambridge, June i6th, 1775. From the 
example here before us, is it likely that any but general 
officers were present at that earlier council .■* 

This council of February i6th reached the following 
result : 

'■'■ Resolved : That a cannonade and bombardment will be ex- 
pedient and advisable, as soon as there shall be a proper supply 
of powder, and not before ; and in the mean time, preparations 
should be made to take possession of Dorchester Hill, with a 
view of drawing out the enemy ; and of Noddle's Island, if the 
situation of the water and other circumstances will permit." 



Mt. s7-6i.] Four Years mo7'e of Army Life. 295 

The nights of March, 2d, 3d, and 4th, were memorable 
in the history of the siege of Boston, for on those nights 
a process was begun which, when finished, summarily ended 
the occupation of the town by British troops. Before 
March 2d, the "proper supply of powder," spoken of in 
the above resolution of February i6th, had been secured, 
and on that night the Americans opened a bombardment 
upon the British camps. It was renewed upon the night 
of the 2)^, and with still greater earnestness on the night of 
the 4th. This bombardment, however, was purely second- 
ary to another very important movement. It was probably 
kept up for two nights before the intended movement, in 
order to make the British think it was only a bombardment. 
But it was really meant simply to divert attention, and by 
its noise to drown other noises that might be raised. In 
the night between March 4th and 5th, military possession 
was taken of the heights of Dorchester, easily commanding 
the town. The British woke on the morning of March 
5th, to find those heights in the possession of the Ameri- 
cans. They were quite as much surprised as when they 
found Breed's Hill fortified on the morning of June 17th, 
in the previous summer. This enterprise at Dorchester 
was attended with greater labors and difficulties than that 
at Charlestown. The ground was frozen to quite a depth, 
and the men could not use their spades for intrenchments. 
The materials for the fortifications had to be brought from 
a distance. Three hundred teams went back and forth in 
the light of a moon, just past the full, their operations being 
upon the back side of the hills, and the noise of the rum- 
bling carts being drowned by the almost incessant thunders 
of the cannon, throwing balls and shells from various points 
upon the town. • Colonel Rufus Putnam was the engineer 
of these night works, and early in the morning the British 
found themselves overlooked and commanded. General 



296 Life of Israel Putnam. [i 775-79- 

John Thomas was the military chief of this expedition, and 
acted his part nobly. 

It was naturally expected that the British would made 
an attack and attempt to carry these works, as they had 
carried Bunker Hill. They must do this or leave the place. 
It was rather confidently expected that they would make 
an assault, and it was hoped they would, for the plans had 
been so laid that heavy damage and loss would most likely 
have been inflicted upon them. 

There were two main parts to the American plan. In 
the first place, these works at Dorchester had been so built 
and arranged, that it would have required a strong and reso- 
lute force to carry them, even though this force had noth- 
ing to disturb or interrupt it. The other part of the plan 
we give as shown in Washington's letter to the Continental 
Congress. 

" When the enemy first discovered our works in the morning 
they seemed to be in great confusion, and from their movements 
to have intended an attack. It is much to be wished that it had 
been made. The event I think must have been fortunate and 
nothing less than success and victory on our side 

" In case the ministerial troops had made an attempt to dis- 
lodge our men from Dorchester Hill, and the number detailed 
upon the occasion had been so great as to have afforded a proba- 
bility of a successful attack being made upon Boston, on a signal 
given from Roxbury for that purpose, agreeably to a settled and 
concerted plan, four thousand chosen men, who were held in readi- 
ness, were to have embarked at the mouth of Cambridge River 
in two divisions ; the first under the command of Brigadier-Gen- 
eral Sullivan, the second under Brigadier-General Greene, the 
whole to have been commanded by Major-General Putnam^ * 

The British planned and intended an assault, but a violent 
storm with wind coming on, they were obliged to desist, and 
* " American Archives," 4th Series, Vol. V. p. 106. 



^T. 57-61.] Foicr Years more of Army Life. 297 

the second sober thought, with some additional information 
probably gained,, convinced them that any such assault 
would be only to their own damage, and that their best 
course was to leave the town. As this expedition under 
General Putnam did not take place, it is impossible to say 
how it might have terminated ; but that he was entrusted 
with the care of a movement so very imporant as this, 
shows us at least what Washington thought of him, after a 
few months' acquaintance. Though Washington and Put- 
nam had both been in the French War, yet their fields of 
operation lay wide apart, and they had never met, till they 
met in Cambridge in July, 1775. 

And now all things betokened bustle and preparation in 
the British camps. Just at this point we will give two 
views, one an outside, and one an inside view of matters, 
such as concerned the British. Stephen Moylan, Aid to 
General Washington, writes the first letter, and a British 
officer the second. Moylan was an Irishman, gallant, brave, 
and well educated ; and Washington made him one of his 
Aids. The letter, as will be seen, was written by Washing- 
ton's direction to Lord Stirling, so called, at the head of two 
or three thousand Americans at New York. 

"Cambridge, March 9th, 1776. 

" Sir : I have it in command from his Excellency General 
Washington to inform you that, in consequence of his determi- 
nation to possess himself of the Heights at Dorchester, a can- 
nonade and bombardment was begun on Saturday night last, on 
the town of Boston, continued on Sunday night and Monday 
ni2:ht. A vast number of shot and shell were thrown into that 
town, under cover of which the intended purpose was effected. 
On the enemy's perceiving next morning that we had taken post, 
they were all hurry and bustle, embarking their troops, as was 
expected, and wished to attack us ; but the violent storm which 
came on that day prevented them, and disappointed us, who 
were prepared to give them a warm reception. 



298 Life of Israel Putnam. [i775-79- 

. ..." If they do not move off he (Washington) is deter- 
mined to force them to a battle, by making that town so hot that 
they will have little rest therein. 

" His Excellency has good reasons to imagine that New York 
will be the place of their destination. He therefore desires that 
you will exert yourself to the utmost in preparing for their re- 
ception If they steer west, you may expect a large rein- 
forcement from this camp, and in all probability the main body 
will soon follow." * 

And now comes the second letter, which gives the inside 
view. The following is from a letter written by an offi- 
cer of distinction in the British army, to a person in Lon- 
don, dated Boston, March 3-17, 1776: 

" For these last six weeks, or near two months, we have been 
better amused than could possibly be expected in our situation. 
We had a theatre, we had balls, and there is actually a subscrip- 
tion on foot for a masquerade. England seems to have forgot 
us, and we endeavored to forget ourselves. But we were roused 
to a sense of our situation last night, in a manner unpleasant 
enough. The rebels have been for some time erecting a bomb- 
battery, and last night began to play upon us 

" March 4th. — Bad news from New York this morning. A 
man who calls himself Lord Stirling .... put himself at the 
head of three thousand men, in conjunction with that arch-rebel, 
Lee, and has driven all the well-affected people [/. e. the Tories] 
from the town of New York 

" March ^th. — This is, I believe, likely to prove as impor- 
tant a day to the British empire as any in our annals. We un- 
derwent last night a very severe cannonade, which damaged a 
number of houses, and killed some men. This morning at day- 
break we discovered two redoubts on the hills Dorchester Point, 
and two smaller works on their flanks. They were all raised 
during the night, with an expedition equal to that of the genii 
belonging to Aladdin's wonderful lamp. From these hills they 

* " American Archives," 4th Series, Vol. V. p. 166. 



^T. s7-6i.] Four Years more of Army Life. 299 

command the whole town, so that we must drive them from their 
post, or desert the place. The former is determined upon, and 
five regiments are already embarked Adieu balls, mas- 
querades, etc. ; for this may be looked upon as the opening of 
the campaign. 

" It is worth while to remark with what judgment the leaders 
of the rebels take advantage of the prejudices and work upon 
the passions of the mob. The 5th of March is what they call 
the bloody massacre, when in (I think) 1769 [in 1770], the King's 
troops fired on the people in the streets of Boston. If ever they 
dare stand us, it will be to-day, but I hope by to-morrow to be 
able to give you an account of their defeat. 

'■'■March 6th. — A wind more violent than anything I ever 
heard, prevented our last night's purposed expedition, and so 
saved the lives of thousands. To-day they have made them- 
selves too strong to make a dislodgement possible We are 

now evacuating the town with the utmost expedition, and leaving 
behind half our worldly goods. Adieu 1 I hope to embark in a 
few hours 

" Nantasket Road, March lyth. — According to my promise I 
proceed to give a brief account of our retreat, which was made 

this morning between the hours of 2 and 8 We kept a 

constant fire upon them from a battery of four twenty-four pound- 
ers. They did not return a single shot. It was lucky for the 
inhabitants now left in Boston that they did not, for I ani in- 
formed everything was prepared to set the town on a blaze, had 
they fired one cannon." * 

This man addressed as Lord Stirling w^as William Alex- 
ander, a native of the city of New York, honorably de- 
scended, and regarded by many as the rightful heir to an 
earldom in Scotland. He could never, however, get pos- 
session of his estate. Out of this belief in his rightful heir- 
ship he was commonly called Lord Stirling. He was a 
man of fine military ability, and became a Major-General. 

* " American Archives," 4th Series, Vol. V. pp. 425-26. 



30O Life of Israel Putnam. [i775-79' 

We find the following account, showing how Putnam 
stood at that time in Washington's estimation, in the " New 
England Chronicle," March 21st, 1776 : 

" The command of the whole being then given to General Put- 
nam, he proceeded to take command of all the important posts, 
and thereby became possessed, in the name of the thirteen United 
Colonies of North America, of all the fortresses in that large and 
once populous and flourishing metropolis which the flower of the 
British army, headed by an experienced General, and supported 
by a formidable fleet of men-of-war, had but an hour before evacu- 
ated in the most precipitate and cowardly manner." * 

Bancroft, in his " History," etc. (Vol.VIII. p. 302), has given 
us a description of the hurry of the British in their depart- 
ure, and a catalogue of the spoils left behind. 

" Everywhere appeared marks of hurry in the flight of the 
British. Among other stores they left behind them two hundred 
and fifty pieces of cannon, of which one-half were serviceable ; 
twenty-five hundred chaldrons of sea coal ; twenty-five thousand 
bushels of wheat ; three thousand bushels of barley and oats ; 
one hundred and fifty horses ; bedding and clothing for soldiers. 
Nor was this all. Several British store-ships consigned to Bos- 
ton, and ignorant of the retreat, successively entered the harbor 
without suspicion, and fell into the hands of the Americans ; 
among them the ship Hope, which, in addition to carbines, bayo- 
nets, gun-carriages and all sorts of tools necessary for artillery, 
had on board more than seven times as much powder as Washing- 
ton's whole stock when his last movement was begun." 

Now, the man whom General Washington selects out of 
all the military men immediately about him, or from those 

* " Last Sabbath, a few hours after the enemy retreated from Boston, the 
Rev. Mr. Leonard (Putnam's chaplain) preached an excellent sermon in the 
audience of his Excellency the General, and others of distinction, .... from 
Exodus, iv. 25 : ' And took off their chariot wheels, that they drove them heavily ; 
so that the Egyptian said, let its flee from the face of Israel, for the Lordfighteth 
for them against the Egyptians.^ " 



^T. 57-61.] Four Years more of Army Life. 301 

more distant, to proceed at once to New York and have 
the supreme control of the mihtary operations there to be 
opened, — to be the commander-in-chief on that important 
field until his own arrival, — must be one of good sense 
and large capacity, else we impugn the good sense and ca- 
pacity of Washington himself. Whom did he select for 
this most responsible and delicate post .'' No other than 
General Putnam. He actually made choice of that very 
man whose " furious ardor may or may not have needed 
the control of a cool, deliberating judgment." Here are 
some words from the instructions given to General Putnam 
in a written order, dated March 29th, 1776 : 

" You will, no doubt, make the best despatch in getting to New 
York, Upon your arrival there you will assume the command, 
and immediately proceed to execute \hQplan proposed by Major- 
General Lee for fortifying that city, and securing the passes of 
the East and North Rivers. If, upon consultation with the Briga- 
diers-General and Engineers, any alteration in that plan is thought 
necessary, you are at liberty to make it ; cautiously avoiding to 
break in too much upon his main design, unless when it may be 
apparently necessary so to do, and that by the general voice and 
opinion of the gentlemen above mentioned 

"Devoutly praying that the Power which has hitherto sus- 
tained the American arms may continue to bless them with the 
divine protection, I bid you Farewell. 

" Given at headquarters, in Cambridge, this 29th of March, 
1776. G. Washington." 

Immediately upon Putnam's arrival in New York he 
wrote a letter * to Congress, of which the following is the 

copy, with the answer received : 

"New York, April 4th, 1776. 
" Sir : Since my arrival at this place I have had abundant 
reason to be convinced that the army here is in the highest need 
of an immediate supply of cash. I therefore now send Major 

* " American Archives," 4th Series, Vol. V. p. 787. 



302 Life of Israel Ptitnam. [I775-79- 

Sherburne to Philadelphia, and I hope the Congress will dispatch 
him as soon as possible, with at least three hundred thousand 
dollars for that purpose. 

" I am, with great regard and esteem, your most humble ser- 
vant, Israel Putnam." 

"To the Honorable John Hancock, Esq." 

" Philadelphia, April loth, 1776. 

" Sir : In consequence of your letter, I laid the application 
before the Congress, who were pleased, in addition to the one 
hundred thousand dollars sent by Captain Faulkner, on Monday 
last, to order two hundred thousand more, which I have the pleas- 
ure of forwarding by Major Sherburne. 

" Should the paymaster be at JVezc/ York, please to order it to 
his care for the use of the troops ; if not, you will order the money 
to be improved for the same purpose, and send a receipt for it. 

" I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient and very 
humble servant, John Hancock, President" 

" To Major-General Putnam, at New York." * 

He also sent the following letter to the New York Com- 
mittee of Safety : 

"New York, April 5th, 1776. 

" Gentlemen : The Continental Congress, imagining the new 
levies in this Province to be in a great state of forwardness, and 
finding, on inquiry, that none of the four regiments to be raised 
in it are properly regimented and completed, I must request of 
you, as the service absolutely requires it, that you exert your- 
selves to the utmost to accomplish this necessary service ; and 
that the troops already raised be ordered to the city without 
delay. 

*' I am, gentlemen, with respect, your humble servant, 

"Israel Putnam. 

" To the Chairman of the Connimittee of Safety of the Province of New 
York." 

A few days after his arrival at New York, he published 
an order regulating the conduct of the inhabitants, which 
we quote entire. 

* " American Archives," 4th Series, Vol. V. p. 843. 



^T. 57-61.] Four Years more of Army Life. 303 

" Headquarters, New York, April 8th, 1776. 

" The General informs the inhabitants, that it is become abso- 
lately necessary that all communication between the ministerial 
fleet and the shore should be immediately stopped ; for that pur- 
pose he has given positive orders, the ships should no longer be 
furnished with provisions. Any inhabitants or others, who shall 
be taken, that have been on board after the publishing this order, 
or near any of the ships, or going on board, will be considered 
as enemies, and treated accordingly. 

"All boats are to sail from Beekman Slip. Captain James 
Alner is appointed inspector, and will give permits to oystermen. 
It is ordered and expected that none attempt going without a 
pass. Israel Putnam, 

" Major-General in the Continental army, 

and commander-in-chief of the forces in New York," 

So implicitly was he trusted, that while Washington was 
called away to Philadelphia from the 21st of May to the 6th 
of June, General Humphreys, in his " Life of Putnam," 
tells us (p. 107) that " General Putnam, who commanded 
in that interval, had it in charge to open all letters directed 
to General Washington on public service, and if important, 
after regulating his conduct by their contents, to forward 
them by express." 

In the month of July he had occasion to write a letter of 
a peculiar character, and which we present as a rare speci- 
men of noble manliness and instinctive delicacy. Few men 
could have composed a more admirable letter under the cir- 
cumstances. The Miss Moncrieffe to whom the letter is 
addressed was, as we understand, the daughter of an engineer 
in the British army. She is anxious to get access to her 
father, but finds herself sadly hindered by the military lines. 
A letter has been sent to General Putnam before by her 
father on this business, and she has heard that her father 
did not address him by his proper title, and is afraid that 
is the reason General Putnam has not answered the letter. 



304 Life of Israel Putnam. [i 77 5-79- 

But he sets that suggestion aside as a man far above all 
small ideas. Take it all in all, the letter is one which 
shows General Putnam to the very best advantage. He 
little knew what was to happen by taking her into his 
family. This is that Margaret Moncrieffe that was thus 
brought across the path of the notorious Aaron Burr, then 
one of General Putnam's Aids. Of this General Putnam 
did not dream when he wrote the letter, and the subse- 
quent fact can have no influence in changing our opinion 
of the letter itself, which is as follows : * 

" New York, July 26th, 1776. 

" I should have answered your letter sooner, but had it not in 
my power to write you anything satisfactory. 

"The omission of my title in Major Moncrieffe' s letter is a 
matter I regard not in the least, nor does it in any way influence 
my conduct in this affair, as you seem to imagine. Any politi- 
cal difference alters him not to me in a private capacity. As an 
officer he is my enemy, and obliged to act as such, be his private 
sentiments what they will. As a man, I owe him no enmity, but 
far from it, will with pleasure do any kind office in my power for 
him or any of his connections. 

" I have, agreeably to your desire, waited on his Excellency, 
to endeavor to obtain permission for you to go to Staten Island. 
He informs me that Lieutenant-Colonel Patterson, who came with 
the last flag, said he was empowered to offer the exchange of 

for Governor Skene. As the Congress have reserved to 

themselves the right of exchanging prisoners, the General has 
sent to know their pleasure, and doubt not they will give their 
consent. I am desired to inform you if this exchange is made 
you will have the liberty to pass out with Governor Skene, but 
that no flag will be sent solely for that purpose. 

"Major William Livingsto7i was lately here, and informed me 
that you had an inclination to live in the city, and that all the 
ladies of your acquaintance having left town, and Mrs. Putnam 
and two daughters being here, proposed your staying with them. 

* " American Archives," 5th Series, Vol. I. p. 471. 



JET. 57-61.] Four Years more, of Army Life. 305 

If agreeable to you, be assured, Miss, you shall be sincerely wel- 
come. You will here, I think, be in a more probable way of ac- 
complishing the end you wish, that of seeing your father ; and 
may depend upon every civility from. Miss, your obedient ser- 
vant, Israel Putnam." 

The kindness of Putnam's heart toward any woman in dis- 
tress is most beautifully exemplified in a story told by General 
Humphreys, relating to the French War. A Mrs. Howe, a 
woman of uncommon graces and personal beauty, a widow 
now for the second time, had been carried captive with her 
seven children by the Indians, after her husband had been 
killed before her eyes. She had been separated from her 
children, and had suffered manifold mental tortures, not the 
least of which was the importunity of a young French 
officer, who persecuted her with his attentions, and who 
was extremely uncivil in doing so. She at length sought 
the protection of Colonel Schuyler, who took her under his 
care, and rescued for her her five youngest children, while 
the two eldest, daughters, the Indians had permitted to 
go into a convent. Colonel Schuyler had to leave the 
army and turn the widow and her children over to Major 
Putnam, and the rest of the story may be told by General 
Humphreys. 

" She had just recovered from the measles when the party was 
preparing to return to New England. By this time the young 
French officer had returned, with his passion rather increased 
than abated by absence. He pursued her wheresoever she went, 
and although he could make no advances in her affection, he 
seemed resolved, by perseverance, to carry his point. Mrs. 
Howe, terrified by his treatment, was obliged to keep constantly 
near Major Putnam, who informed the young officer that he 
should protect that lady at the risk of his life. 

" In the long march from captivity, through an unhospitable 
wilderness, encumbered with five small children, she suffered in- 



3o6 Life of Israel Putnam. [1775-79- 

credible hardships. Though endowed Avith mascuhne fortitude, 
she was truly feminine in strength, and must have fainted by the 
way had it not been for the assistance of Major Putnam. There 
were a thousand good offices which the helplessness of her condi- 
tion demanded, and which the gentleness of his nature delighted to 
perform. He assisted in leading her little ones and in carrying 
them over the swampy grounds and runs of water, with which 
their course was frequently intercepted. He mingled his own 
mess with that of the widow and fatherless, and assisted them in 
obtaining and preparing their provisions. Upon arriving within 
the settlements they experienced a reciprocal regret at separa- 
tion, and were only consoled by the expectation of soon mingling 
in the embraces of their former acquaintances and dearest con- 
nections." 

Putnam knew how, with his strong hand, to take a woman, 
corrupt and traitorous, before the commander-in-chief, and 
to overawe her by the majesty of his wrath, so she dare no 
longer conceal the part she was acting ; but he knew how, 
on the other hand, to treat a true woman, who was in trouble, 
with all the kindness and delicacy imaginable. And there 
was that in his strong, robust, manly nature and honest 
heart which was exactly fitted to draw the confidence, the 
admiration, and the love of a woman. 

We pass on now to the month of August, and to the some- 
what unfortunate battle of Long Island, in which General 
Putnam is represented by Bancroft as showing military "in- 
capacity," and in which certainly he did not secure his ordi- 
nary measure of success. But the circumstances under which 
this action took place deserve to be considered. The battle 
was fought on the 27th of August. The American army on 
Long Island was under the command of General Nathaniel 
Greene. On the i6th of August he was reported to be ill 
of a fever. He himself sent word to Washington to this 
effect, and also that the Hessians were landing in consider- 
able numbers on Staten Island. On the i8th, General 



^T. 57-61.] Four Years more of Army Life. 307 

Greene was reported better, and he hoped in a few days to 
be about. But the sickness continued, and he was worse 
again. August 23d, General Sullivan was appointed to 
take his place in the command ; and it was becoming more 
and more apparent that the British meditated an attack. 
August 24th, General Putnam went to take charge of these 
operations. He had not made the previous dispositions, 
and was not in a condition of knowledge to do as well as 
he might otherwise have done. The British forces also 
greatly outnumbered our own. They had accumulated 
their troops in that vicinity to the number of some twenty- 
four thousand, while the active forces on our side were 
far less. The British losses in killed and wounded were 
equal to our own, but they captured more than a thousand 
prisoners, and the victory was clearly with them. 

Sparks, in his " Life and Writings of Washington" (Vol. 
I. p. 193), puts the case thus : 

" It was unfortunate that the illness of General Greene de- 
prived the commander on the spot of his counsel, he being 
thoroughly acquainted with the grounds and the roads ; whereas, 
General Putnam took the command only four days before the 
action, and of course had not been able from personal inspection 
to gain the requisite knowledge." 

When Bancroft charges Putnam with " incapacity," it is 
one of those general assertions about as far from the exact 
balances of truth, as when in Volume VII. he makes Wil- 
liam Prescott the chief commander and hero of Bunker 
Hill. 

Lord Howe reported a loss of sixty-one killed, two hun- 
dred and fifty-seven wounded and twenty-nine missing, but 
at the same time reported one thousand and ninety-seven 
American prisoners taken. The result of the battle was 
that we had immediately to evacuate Long Island, and not. 
long after the city of New York itself. 



308 Life of Israel Putnam. [i77S-79- 

By the middle of September Washington had left New 
York and established himself with the army on Harlem 
Heights. The retreat of the American army from Long 
Island, and soon after from New York, was successful 
under the conditions of the case beyond all that could have 
been hoped. New York was a small affair then in com- 
parison with its present dimensions. It was built on the 
lower end of Manhattan Island, and that large domain 
above, stretching on for miles, now covered by the great 
metropolis, was open country, and much of it half wild and 
unbroken country, with here and there some gentlemanly 
mansion, making a bright and cultivated spot amid the gen- 
eral waste. In 1776, the traveller passing up Broadway 
from the Battery, by the time he reached the vicinity of the 
City Hall Park and the Astor House, would find himself 
passing out into this country region. In the military occu- 
pation of the city by the American army in that spring 
and summer of 1776, Putnam's division was at the extreme 
southerly end of the island. His headquarters were at 
No. I Broadway, close by Castle Garden, and in a house 
which is said to be still standing. A description of it is 
given in " Scribner's Monthly" for February, 1876; also 
a picture showing it. 

When the British troops came over from Long Island, 
and the American army was obliged to leave the place, 
there was imminent danger that Putnam's division would 
be cut off and fall into the hands of the enemy. The story 
of his escape is so admirably told in the number of " Scrib- 
ner's Monthly" just referred to, that we cannot forbear 
quoting it. The passage is in an illustrated article, entitled 
" New York in the Revolution," from the pen of John F. 
Mines. 

"Drawn from the field of battle by one of his Aids, he 
(Washington) at once sent word to Putnam to retreat to Harlem, 



iET. 57-6i.] Four Years more of Army Life. 309 

and take measures to concentrate his entire forces on Harlem 
Heights. General Putnam was forced to abandon his heavy- 
cannon and many of his stores, and even thus his flight was im- 
peded by a throng of fugitives, men, women and children, with 
their baggage. Guided by Aaron Burr, he made a rapid march 
along the Hudson, happily escaping discovery until he had 
reached the Bloomingdale Road, and finally reaching camp with a 
comparatively insignificant loss. The day was hot, the fugitives 
were fairly panting with thirst and fatigue, but Putnam on his 
foaming charger flew from one end of the line to the other, en- 
treating, urging, and dealing in stout objurgations until his charge 
had passed, at night-fall, the American pickets on the heights of 
Harlem. 

" Neither soldier nor fugitive knew how narrow had been the 
escape of Putnam's army that day. When Sir William Howe, 
accompanied by Clinton and Tryon, had landed at Kip's Bay 
with the main body of the British army, they struck across to the 
Middle Road, intending to make their camp on the heights of In- 
clenburg, midway between New York and Harlem. They reached 
the road at a point just opposite to where Putnam was stealing 
along, under cover of the woods that skirted the Hudson to re- 
join Washington. There was a house near by, from whose upper 
windows they might easily have discovered the dust created by 
the rapid march of the 'rebels,' and from its cupola the gleam 
of bayonets would have been plainly visible. The Americans 
were not distant, indeed, but there was another and more insidious 
foe near at hand. Close to the Middle Road, at a point now des- 
ignated by the corporation as Fifth Avenue and Thirty-seventh 
Street, stood the unpretentious but exceedingly comfortable man- 
sion of Robert Murray, a Quaker merchant of approved loyalty 
to the crown, as well as of large wealth. Fortunately the shrewd 
merchant could not control the feelings of his household, and 
his wife and daughters were ardent patriots. When Lord Howe 
and his staff reached the end of the Quaker's gardens, they were 
enraptured to find Mrs. Murray and her beautiful daughters ready 
to greet them with a warm welcome. The parties had once met 
in more peaceful days. 



310 Life of Israel Putnam. [i77S-79' 

"'William,' said the fair Quaker matron, 'will thee alight and 
refresh thyself at our house ? ' 

" ' I thank you, Mrs. Murray,' said the pleasure-loving comman- 
der, * but I must first catch that rascally Yankee, Putnam.' 

"The Yankee General was not to be caught this time, if 
woman's wit could save him, even if the truth must be tortured 
into a shape that should deceive, in order to save life. Very de- 
murely the lady rejoined, in that plain language of her sect 
which always carries with it such an emphasis of truth, — 

" ' Didst thou not hear that Putnam had gone ? It is late to 
try to catch him. Thee had better come in and dine.' 

" The invitation was seconded by the brightest smiles of the 
daughters, and Howe wavered. Promising to pursue the hated 
Yankees after he had dined, the British commander alighted and 
entered the house, where the fascinations of the charming host- 
ess made him forget for hours the object of his expedition. Put- 
nam meanwhile was flying up the Bloomingdale Road, never dar- 
ing to draw breath until he caught sight of Washington's tents. 
Thacher, in his * Military Journal,' writes that it became a com- 
mon saying among the American officers that Mrs. Murray had 
saved Putnam's division." 

When we bear in mind that the American army wzs, 
making this retreat in the immediate neighborhood of some 
twenty thousand British troops, it was indeed fortunate 
that they escaped the entanglements of such a situation 
with only a very trifling loss. Hardly had they taken pos- 
session of the heights of Harlem, when a British force of 
three battalions, with cannon, came upon their skirmish 
lines with a bold audacity, as though acting against fright- 
ened fugitives. This body was very severely punished for 
its temerity. It had to withdraw, after a loss of seventy 
killed and two hundred and ten wounded, and this sudden 
success on our side, following immediately upon disaster, put 
new life and courage into the American troops. The vic- 
tory, however, cost us the precious life of Lieutenant-Colo- 



^T. 57-6i.] Four Years more of Army Life. 311 

nel Knowlton, an officer greatly admired and beloved. 
Another young and heroic life was sacrificed on the altar 
of war only a few days later. Nathan Hale, a young man 
of twenty-one, a native of Coventry, Connecticut, a gradu- 
ate of Yale College, volunteered to go within the British 
lines as a spy ; was detected and executed, dying with those 
memorable words upon his lips, " I only regret that I have 
but one life to lose for my country." 

The American army, having now been brought into a 
position where it was hazardous to attack it, and General 
Howe, being in possession of Long Island and New York 
city, with a large army on his hands, determined to try his 
fortunes in making movements with a portion of his forces 
into New Jersey (or the Jerseys, as they were then called) 
and on toward Philadelphia. This necessitated a correspond- 
ing movement on the part of Washington; but this fall 
campaign of 1776, in New Jersey and vicinity, was attended 
with various fortunes upon which we will not dwell. After 
these operations had been mainly brought to an end. Gen- 
eral Putnam was despatched from New York to Philadel- 
phia, as he had before been from Boston to New York, to 
act as commander-in-chief about this central city, where 
the Continental Congress was sitting, — to superintend the 
fortifications in process of erection, and provide for the 
security of the inhabitants. General Humphreys has pre- 
served for us in his "Life," etc. (p. 129), one of the mili- 
tary orders which Putnam issued after his arrival at Phila- 
delphia. 

"Headquarters, Philadelphia, Dec. 14th, 1776. 

" Colonel Griffin is appointed Adjutant-General to the troops 
in and about this city. All orders from the General, through him, 
either written or verbal, are to be strictly attended to and punctu- 
ally obeyed. 

" In case of an alarm of fire, the city guards and patrols are to 
suffer the inhabitants to pass unmolested at any hour of the night; 



312 Life of Israel Putnam. [i775-79- 

and the good people of Philadelphia are earnestly requested and 
desired to give every assistance in their power, with engines and 
buckets, to extinguish the fire. And as the Congress have ordered 
the city to be defended to the last extremity, the General hopes 
that no person will refuse to give every assistance possible to 
complete the fortifications that are to be erected in and about the 
city. Israel Putnam." 

After General Putnam had fulfilled his mission at Phila- 
delphia, he was stationed during the winter at Princeton, 
and by the various little expeditions which he set on foot, 
and which were superintended by himself or his agents, it 
was estimated, according to the statement of his biographer, 
that he captured in the whole season not far from one thou- 
sand prisoners. 

In the early part of this chapter, it was stated that for a 
time such letters and military orders as were sent forth by 
Putnam would be given in so full measure that we might 
have before us the means of judging of his character and 
capacity. These have been given in sufficient numbers for 
such an estimate. We have taken them just as we found 
them, have suppressed nothing which would be of assist- 
ance for this purpose. And have we found anything in 
these products of his mind which seem to make him in any 
degree unworthy of that high confidence which Washing- 
ton all along is seen to have reposed in him ? From the 
day when Washington handed him his commission at 
Cambridge in July, 1775, to the close of 1779, when he was 
obliged by failing health to leave the army, he was always 
near to Washington, in the management of military affairs, 
and we know not the slightest evidence that Washington 
ever wished him to be displaced from that high position, 
and have another substituted in his stead. On the other 
hand, the chief commander early gave him his heart and his 
confidence to a very remarkable degree ; and a letter written 



^T. 5 7-6 1.] Four Years more of Army Life. 313 

to Putnam by Washington, after the war was over, and 
which will be given in another chapter, will testify to the 
strength of this regard. These things being so, can it ever 
be edifying to the people who know them to be so, to read 
articles in newspapers, or listen to long and elaborate ora- 
tions, or study carefully prepared pamphlets and volumes, 
in which Colonel William Prescott is made proudly to over- 
top this man, even to such a degree that the Major-General 
sinks into comparative insignificance ? We have been sub- 
jected to these trifles and follies long enough. Let the little 
fictitious eddies of local narrative cease their play, and let 
the stream of veritable history flow on. 

In the concluding portions of this chapter we will give 
the most rapid outline of General Putnam's closing years in 
the army. Some disasters had overtaken the northern army, 
and he was moved up the Hudson, to make his headquarters 
at Peekskill. This was in May, 1777. 

In the month of August a Tory spy was caught in Put- 
nam's camp, and put under arrest. The British officers 
at once sent a flag of truce with a message demanding his 
release. Only a few months before they had summarily 
hanged Nathan Hale, when he was caught in the British 
camp, and now they sent a message, haughtily demanding 
that this Edmund Palmer (the name of the spy) should be 
restored. Putnam promptly sent back the following reply : 

Headquarters, 7th August, 1777. 
" Sir : Edmund Palmer, an officer in the enemy's service, 
was taken as a spy lurking within our lines. He has been tried 
as a spy, condemned as a spy, and shall be executed as a spy ; 
and the flag is ordered to depart immediately. 

" Israel Putnam. 
" P. S. — He has been accordingly hanged." 

The account given in General Humphreys' " Life," etc., 
is somewhat different, but substantially the same.* 

*" General Putnam, whose exploits on the Upper Hudson have made 



314 Life of Isi'ael Putnam. [i77S-79- 

That is certainly using the King's English and the 
King's subjects to some purpose. 

Hostile armies facing each other often find the means of 
diversion in their interchanges during the pauses of the 
fight. Rivington, in New York, the newspaper publisher, 
was a conspicuous Tory, and all news in his paper had a 
high Tory coloring. Putnam had known the British Major- 
General Robertson (now in his vicinity) in the French 
War, and one day he sent to him some American news- 
papers with the following note: "Major-General Putnam 
presents his compliments to Major-General Robertson, and 
sends him some American newspapers for his perusal. 
When General Robertson shall have done with them, it is 
requested they be given to Rivington, in order that he may 
print some truth." * 

It was while thus occupied on the Hudson that General 
Putnam, being requested by General Washington to can- 
vass the localities along the river, and fix upon the best 
place for the building of fortifications to command the 

that region famous in history and tradition, was in command there. A young 
man, a scion of a good family in Westchester County, was arrested on sus- 
picion of being a spy, and was brought before Putnam. On his person were 
found enlisting papers signed by Tryon, and other evidences of his guilt. 
Sir Henry Clinton sent a note to Putnam with a flag, claiming the culprit as 
a British officer, and making insolent threats of wrathful retaliation in case 
the young man should be harmed. Putnam replied in writing [as above]. 
No spy was ever found in Putnam's camp after that." — Benson J. Lossing in 
" Harper's Monthly " for April, 1876, p. 647. 

* Putnam was fond of these little diversions. The following, which we 
find in the "New England Chronicle " for September 28th, 1775, will give 
another instance in point : 

" An officer in Boston writes thus to his father in London : ' Why should I 
complain of hard fate. General Gage and all his family have for this month past 
lived upon salt provisions. Last Saturday, General Putnam, in the true spirit 
of military complaisance, which abolishes all personal resentment and smooths 
the horrors of war when discipline will permit, sent a present to the General's 
lady of a fine fresh quarter of veal, which was very acceptable, and received 
the return of a very polite card of thanks.' " 



■i^^' 




PaTNAM's ESCAFE AT HoRSENEClC. 



iET. 57-6I-] Four Years more of Army Life. 315 

river, made choice of West Point for this purpose. It is 
claimed by General Humphreys that this spot, which has 
such a famous connection with our military history as a 
people, was first pointed out and chosen for military pur- 
poses by General Putnam, and we find this statement cor- 
roborated by other writers. 

During the winter of 1 777-S>, for the better overlooking 
of all the interests entrusted to him, the headquarters of 
Putnam were removed to Reading, Connecticut, one of 
the western towns of the State, bordering New York, 
where he still kept himself in connection with the same 
general field of observation as when at Peekskill, though 
that field was now enlarged. It was not long after estab- 
lishing himself at Reading that his famous ride down the 
stone steps occurred. General Sherman, in his Bunker 
Hill speech at the Centennial, was a little uncertain where 
this adventure occurred. But the writer has several times 
stood on the brow of that hill and looked down this famous 
declivity. 

It was in the centre of the town of Greenwich, Connec- 
ticut. The traveller, passing from New Haven to New York, 
on the railroad, goes by this Connecticut town on his route, 
just before reaching the New York line, but the centre of 
the place lies on the high land about a half or three-fourths 
of a mile north of the railroad line. Here Mr. Tweed had 
his palatial residence in the days of his evil prosperity. 
Reaching the main village on the hill, the wide central 
street, running easterly and westerly, encounters at the 
eastern extremity of the village a steep declivity. Many 
years ago, the upper part of this hill was cut through to 
quite a depth, and the materials taken down to build up a 
high causeway on the lower slopes, and across the meadows, 
so that now the main road from Greenwich to Stamford 
passes directly over this declivity. In the revolution- 



3i6 Life of Israel Putiiam. U775-79- 



ary days, there was no such thing as a carriage or horse 
road there, and if it had been suggested that there ever 
would be, the idea would probably have been regarded as 
preposterous. But to save foot-passengers coming from 
the direction of Stamford a long roundabout journey, the 
steep descent had been furnished with steps, up which the 
esstern dwellers climbed to meeting on Sundays, and for 
the common transactions of life on week days. The de- 
clivity reaches on some distance to the north, and the car- 
riage or horseback road to Stamford from Greenwich in the 
old times had to make this northerly circuit. 

General Putnam had gone out from Reading, with a recon- 
noitering party and some pieces of cannon. He was try- 
ing to find out what was going on among the British in the 
direction of New York ; when in the centre of Greenwich, 
he was met by a force far exceeding his own, under the 
command of Governor Tryon. He tried to make a stand, 
and did succeed in giving a few discharges from his artil- 
lery. But the opposing force was numerous, and there was 
no escape if he offered longer resistance. Bidding the men 
on foot seek shelter in the swamp below, he turned his 
horse's head down these steps, receiving a bullet through 
his military cap in the descent, but reached the bottom of 
the hill in safety, when he turned and waved his sword to 
the British dragoons, who stood wonder-struck at the top. 
Governor Tryon, in admiration of his adventurous daring, 
pleasantly sent him a new cap for the one which the bul- 
let had spoiled. The story is told in Greenwich, how one 
of the citizens took an Englishman to show him this place, 
and to tell him the tradition connected with it, when the 
visitor complacently remarked that it was nothing very sur- 
prising. " Our English hunters," said he, " often ride down 
worse places than that." "But," said the citizen, "your 
English dragoons did not follow General Putnam down that 
hill." 



iET. 57-6I-] Four Years more of Army Life, 317 

In 1779, General Putnam's headquarters were removed 
to Buttermilk Falls, about two miles below West Point. 
When the summer campaign was over, and the troops 
were going into winter quarters, Putnam with his family 
(which means his son, Major Daniel Putnam, and his Aids) 
went home to spend a few weeks in Connecticut. We will 
allow General Humphreys to give the account of what 
happened during this visit, thus : 

" Upon the road between Pomfret and Hartford [he had been 
to his home and was now on his return], he felt an unusual 
torpor pervading his right hand and foot. This heaviness crept 
gradually on, until it had deprived him of the use of his limbs on 
that side in a considerable degree, before he reached the house 
of his friend, Colonel Wadsworth. Still he was unwilling to think 
the disorder of the paralytic kind, and endeavored to shake it off 
by exertion. Having found that impossible, a temporary dejec- 
tion, disguised under a veil of assumed cheerfulness, succeeded. 
But reason, philosophy and religion soon reconciled him to his 
fate." 

This was the end of his army life. He was forced to 
leave a service which he loved, and in which he had gained 
such high distinctions. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CLOSING YEARS. 

Returns to Pomfret, Connecticut. — Sore Disappointment, — His cheerful 
Resignation. — His manner of Life. — Letter from Washington. — Some 
estimates of his Character, and the results of his warlike Activity. — Sud- 
den Death in 1790. — His Funeral. — His Tomb. 

A STRONG will often bows before the inevitable with a 
docility that a feeble will never exhibits. A person of 
weak and vacillating mind will fret and beat against those 
walls which he can neither break down or overleap ; while 
the man of strong and resolute force will often bow before 
the power that is higher than he with the meekness of a 
little child. When the full conviction came upon the mind 
of General Putnam, at the end of that journey to Hartford, 
as he was on his way again to headquarters, in the winter 
of 1779-80, that his activities must cease, there was doubt- 
less a great struggle of soul. How could he stop short, in 
his work of helping to deliver the land from the oppressor, 
and establish the fair heritage of freedom ? But when he 
saw that this must be, he accepted the situation like a Chris- 
tian man, and retired to his quiet home at Pomfret to linger 
out the remainder of his years. 

Happily this paralytic stroke had not invaded his mind, 
which remained still wakeful and active. From his lonely 
watch-tower of observation, he followed with the deepest 
interest the chances and changes of the revolutionary 
struggle, during its remaining years, till at length, in 1783, 
the end was reached, and the land was delivered. The Dec- 

318 



JEt. 61-72.] Closing Years. 319 

laration of i ']']6 was made good, and the United States con- 
stituted a new and independent nation among the peoples 
of the earth. 

In this year 1783, but before the war had fully closed, 
Putnam received, in answer to a letter which he had written, 
a communication from the honored and beloved Washing- 
ton, which must have deeply moved him, in the depths of 
his retirement. The opening and closing passages of this 

letter we will give, as follows : 

" Headquarters, 2nd June, 1783. 

"Dear Sir: Your favor of the 20th of May I received with 
much pleasure. For I can assure you that among the many 
worthy and meritorious officers with whom I have had the happi- 
ness to be connected in service through the course of this war, and 
from whose cheerful assistance and advice have received much 
support and confidence in the various and trying vicissitudes of 
a complicated contest, the name of a Putnam is not forgotten ; 
nor will it be but with that stroke of time which shall obliterate 
from my mind the remembrance of all those toils and fatigues 
through which we have struggled for the preservation and estab- 
lishment of the Rights., Liberties, and Independence of our coun- 
try. Your congratulations on the happy prospects of peace and 
independent security, with their attendant blessings to the United 
States, I receive with great satisfaction ; and beg that you will 
accept a return of my gratulations to you on this auspicious event, 
— an event, in which, great as it is in itself, and glorious as it 
will probably be in its consequences, you have a right to partici- 
pate largely from the distinguished part you have contributed 
towards its attainment 

" I anticipate with pleasure the day, and that I trust not far 
off, when I shall quit the busy scenes of a military employment, 
and retire to the more tranquil walks of domestic life. In that, 
or in whatever other situation Providence may dispose of my 
future days, the remembrance of the many friendships and con- 
nections I have had the happiness to contract with the gentlemen 
of the army, will be one of my most grateful reflections. Under 



320 Life of Israel Putnam. [1779-90. 

this contemplation, and impressed with the sentiments of benevo- 
lence and regard, I commend you, my dear sir, my other friends, 
and with them the interests and happiness of our dear country, to 
the keeping and protection of Ahnighty God. 

" I have the honor to be, etc., George Washington." 

"To the Honorable Major-General Putnam." 

Rev. L. Grosvenor, his great-grandson, from whom we 
have several times quoted in the earlier parts of this vol- 
ume, thus describes General Putnam's personal appearance, 
as also his manner of life after his return from the war : 

" Putnam, in personal appearance, was of medium height, of a 
strong, athletic figure, and in the time of the revohitionary war, 
rather fleshy, weighing about two hundred pounds. His hair 
was dark, his eyes light blue, his complexion a florid Saxon, and 
his broad, good-humored face marked with deep scars, received 
in his encounters with French and Indians. A portrait of him, 
taken in his younger days, when he was a provincial Major, gives 
him rather a slim but muscular figure, dressed in scarlet coat 
and -breeches, and a light vest, with buff gloves and black cra- 
vat. He is described by those now living, who frequently saw 
him in his old age, as being very large around the chest, show- 
ing what we should expect from his habits, a great amount of 
the sanguine vital temperament. Even after his final return from 
the wars, when one side of him was so paralyzed that his right arm 
clung close and useless to his side, and he had to be assisted to 
mount his horse, he rode almost every day on horseback, sitting 
up as straight as a boy. 

" Many anecdotes are related of his energy and perseverance 
in the days of his bodily feebleness. Those who are old now, 
but boys then, remember, and tell wiih delight, about the Gen- 
eral's spirited bay mare, and the perfect mastery which he main- 
tained over her, bringing her at any time to a dead halt by shaking 
the head of his ivory-headed cane. He was frequently seen at the 
houses of his sons and daughters in Brooklyn and Pomfret, and at 



Mr. 61-72.] Clositig Years. 321 

the raisings and other gatherings and merry-makings in the neigh- 
borhood. There, seated in some arm-chair, promptly brought for- 
ward by the young men for his comfort, he, leaning like another 
old patriarch on the top of his staff, surrounded by a crowd of 
children and grand-children, and friends and neighbors, related 
abundant anecdotes of the olden time, while his happy audience 
greeted with loud laughter the outpourings of his ready wit and 
his kindly and genial humor." 

Putnam was sixty-one years old when this stroke o£ pa- 
ralysis fell upon him. He was not therefore a very old 
man. But the immense physical strain that for so many 
years taxed his system doubtless caused this calamity to 
fall earlier than it otherwise would. When we consider 
the scenes which he passed through in the French War, 
the exposures of those northern winters, the terrible marches 
through the wilderness, the fierce encounters which came 
in his way as a ranger, when every faculty of mind and 
body were taxed to their utmost ; or when we reflect upon 
such a continuous ride over rough roads as he took when 
he left Pomf ret on the morning of the 20th of April, visiting 
first the neighboring towns, then coming to Cambridge, 
thence to Concord, and probably bringing up again at Cam- 
bridge on the night of April 21st ; or what he passed through 
between Friday morning, June i6th, and Sunday evening, 
June i8th, 1775, no wonder that a system, though naturally 
built and compacted like iron, began to give way under such 
almost superhuman labors. From his early years the horse 
was his companion, till by long use he almost realized the 
old fable of the Centaurs. The horse and the man became 
but parts of one whole. The horse loves a bold and gen- 
erous ruler, and in Putnam's hands the animal became obe- 
dient to the rider's every impulse. Even paralysis could 
not shake him from his horse. It is related that only a 
short time before his death he went back to the home of 



322 Life of Israel Putnam. [1779-90. 

his ancestors in Dan vers, making the whole journey both 
ways on horseback, though by easy stages. 

Perhaps the most graphic description ever given in few 
words of General Putnam — his personal appearance and 
character — comes to us from the pen of one of his grand- 
sons, a man eminent in his generation. Judge Judah Dana, 
formerly United States Senator from Maine. 

" In his person, for height about the middle size, very erect, 
thickset, muscular and firm in everj^ part. His countenance was 
open, strong and animated ; the features of his face large, well- 
proportioned to each other and to his whole frame ; his teeth 
fair and sound till death. His organs and senses were all ex- 
actly fitted for a warrior ; he heard quickly, saw to an immense 
distance, and though he sometimes stammered in conversation, his 
voice was remarkably heavy, strong and commanding. Though 
facetious and dispassionate in private, when animated in the heat 
of battle his countenance was fierce and terrible and his voice 
like thunder. His whole manner was admirably adapted to in- 
spire his soldiers with courage and confidence, and his enemies 
with terror. The faculties of his mind were not inferior to those 
of his body ; his penetration was acute ; his decision rapid, yet 
remarkably correct ; and the more desperate the situation the 
more collected and undaunted. With the courage of a lion he 
had a heart that melted at the sight of distress ; he could never 
witness suffering in any human being without becoming a sufferer 
himself. Even the operation of a blood-letting has caused him 
to faint. In viewing a field of battle his distress was exquisite, 
until he had afforded friend and foe all the relief in his power. 
Once after a battle, on examining a bullet wound through the 
head of a favorite officer. Captain Whiting, who died upon the 
field, he fainted and was taken up for dead. Martial music roused 
him to the highest pitch, while solemn, sacred music sent him 
into tears. In his disposition he was open and generous almost 
to a fault ; he never disguised, and in his social relations he 
was never excelled." 



/Et. 61-72.] Closing Years. 323 

In reading such a description we cannot but think of 
Martin Luther. Among all the characters of history we 
can hardly remember any one with whom Putnam, by his 
natural gifts and qualities, had more in common. There 
was the same large, robust, animal nature, with its immense 
treasuries of strength and courage. Placed in Luther's po- 
sition, it would have been just like Putnam to say, " I will 
go to Worms, though there are as many devils as tiles on 
the roofs of the houses." There was the same whole- 
souled generosity by which he touched and swayed the 
common people as with the wand of the enchanter. There 
was the same deep-seated mirth and jollity ; as for example, 
when the British officer challenged Putnam to fight, and he 
having the choice of weapons, chose that they should sit 
together over a keg of powder, to which a slow match was 
applied. The officer sat till the match drew near the hole, 
when he ran for his life, Putnam calling after him that it 
was only a keg of onions, with a few grains of powder 
sprinkled upon it. When Luther could not carry his audi- 
ence in any other way, he could do it by a joke or the most 
comical anecdote. Both were men who touched our com- 
mon humanity at many points, and both were men who did 
not indulge in mirth for its own sake merely, but they had 
a great moral purpose in their lives, which lifted them in- 
infinitely above all triflers. 

Another striking characteristic of Putnam, and this he 
inherited largely from his ancestors, was his love of the soil. 
He took delight in the ownership of land, and not in the mere 
ownership, but in the subjugation of it to man's uses and 
wants. Like the first father of the race, he felt himself sent 
into the garden " to dress it and to keep it." There was wealth 
in that soil, the wealth that God gives to the " sweat of the 
brow." He would look with immeasurable contempt upon 
that unhealthy and ignoble crowd which throngs our great 



324 Life of Israel PutJtam. [1779-90. 

cities to-day, hoping by cunning and fortunate ventures to 
abstract wealth from other men's pockets, without any pro- 
ductive industry whatever on its own part. He would per- 
haps sit over a real keg of powder with a man of this stamp 
till he was blown up and the earth rid of him. His idea of 
accumulation was only as the fruit of honest service and 
hard toil. And he had his reward. Through these last 
years of his life, his farming operations still went on under 
his eye as of old. He kept adding to his lands, year by 
year, through his whole life. Mr. Grosvenor tells us, that 
when he died, "he left by will about a thousand acres of 
land in Pomfret, Brooklyn and Canterbury, divided be- 
tween his sons Israel, Daniel and Peter Schuyler; and 
£,1,200 in money, divided equally among his four daugh- 
ters. He bequeathed also to his grandson Elisha Avery 
;^i5o; also to his son Peter Schuyler all his live stock, 
farming tools and provisions." * His wealth, such as he 

*The following, which we cut from the Boston "Journal," though the 
record is not brought down to the present time, will convey general impres- 
sions that are correct : 

"General Putnam's Boys and Girls. — A correspondent in the Rut- 
land ' Daily Globe ' takes exceptions to a statement in a recent item in the 
'Journal.' In describing the 76th birthday party of Mr. Lewis Putnam Glea- 
son of Bedford, it referred to him as being ' a grandson of the only daughter 
of General Israel Putnam,' whom, we know, ranked next to General Wash- 
ington. It should have read thus : ' A grandson of one of the daughters,' etc. 
The descendants of ' Old Put ' in Vermont felt a little agitated to have the 
printer shut them out of so distinguished a family circle with the little word 
'only,'' and during the centennial year too ! 

" The descendants of Putnam are numerous, for seven of his children lived 
to be married, and to increase and multiply after the fashion of their worthy 
ancestor. He had as many daughters as sons, that is, five of each. We give 
the names of his boys and girls : Israel, Jr., born Jan. 28th, 1740 ; David, born 
March loth, 1742, died young; Hannah, born Aug. 25th, 1744; Elizabeth, 
born March 20th, 1747, died young; Mehitable, born Oct. 21st, 1749 ; Molly, 
born May loth, 1753 ; Eunice, born Jan. loth, 1756; Daniel, born Nov. i8th, 
1759 ; David, born Oct. 14th, 1761, died young; Peter Schuyler, born Dec. 
31st, 1764. 

" Israel, Jr., removed with his family to Ohio, and his descendants are found 



^T. 61-72.] Closing Years. 325 

had, was real and solid ; not of that spongy stuff, of which 
a man can say that he is worth $200,000 to-day, and noth- 
ing at all to-morrow. It was wealth that based itself on 
God's enduring foundations. 

In Rev. Mr. Grosvenor's delineations of Putnam's life 
and character, he introduces a brief letter from Dr. Jared 
Sparks, written in January, 1844. President Sparks, who 
did so much with his pen to illustrate American history, 
was a native of Willington, Connecticut, and was born in 
1789, the year before Putnam died. Willington is only a 
little way from Pomfret, so that Sparks, working upon the 
soil, in his childhood and youth, was not far removed from 
the traditions and associations circling around the name of 
the old revolutionary hero. The air of Connecticut was 
full of the stories which Putnam's career had set in motion. 
In this letter to Mr. Grosvenor, he says, — 

" That he [Putnam] never made mistakes I would not say, for 
it cannot be said of a single officer of the Revolution ; but I am 
sure it may be safely affirmed, that there was not among all the 
patriots of the Revolution a braver man, or one more true to the 
interests of his country, or of more generous and noble spirit." 

To measure the real extent of Putnam's services in the 
revolutionary struggle, a few simple things are to be borne 
in mind. There was, first of all, that perfect abandon with 
which he threw himself into the breach, as a leader. It 
was a fearful undertaking. A feeling widely prevailed 
among the people, which found expression in such words 

all over the Buckeye State. Peter removed to Williamstown, Mass. Molly 
married a Waldo, and Hannah a Dana, and their descendants number many 
of the best families of New England. Eight of Putnam's grandchildren were 
known to be alive about fifteen years ago, viz., Captain David Putnam, Mari- 
etta, Ohio, son of Israel, Jr. ; General Wm. P. Tyler, Brooklyn, Ct, son of Me- 
hitable ; Colonel L. P. Grosvenor, Pomfret, Ct., son of Eunice ; Mrs. Har- 
riet Grosvenor, Hartford, Ct, and Mrs. Emily Brown, Brooklyn, daughters of 
Daniel Putnam, and three sons of Peter in New York and Ohio." 



326 Life of Israel Putnam. [1779-90. 

of Scripture as these : " We have no might against this 
great company that cometh against us ; neitlier know we 
what to do ; but our eyes are upon thee." To see a man 
like Putnam, at his age and with his military experience, 
without the least precaution or disguise, with no effort what- 
ever at concealment whether in the presence of British offi- 
cers, or among his fellow-citizens, throwing himself with his 
whole soul, with all his powers of mind and body, into the 
thick of the strife, from the very outset, this was worth 
more to the popular cause than can possibly be estimated.* 
Such a man, so acting, becomes a source and fountain-head 
of courage to a whole nation. We have seen that Sparks, 
and Washington himself, by the language quoted from their 
letters, have this in their minds, and they freely assign to 
Putnam a very large share in the securing of American 
independence. 

Is there any other man (Washington only excepted) 
whose agency and service in this direction will rank along- 
side of those of General Putnam } We can think of no 
one. France sent us a most graceful, brave and chivalric 
helper in the person of Lafayette. His example was most 
inspiriting, and his services highly valuable ; but Lafay- 
ette did not come till the first difficulties had been sur- 
mounted, and the nation fully organized for resistance. 
When Putnam plunged without reserve into this strife, it 
was all uncertain how the remoter colonies would act. The 
land was full of Tories. If the Middle and Southern States 
held back and failed New England, a traitor's doom was 
almost certain to await him at the end. The common sol- 

* " Some of those persons who signed the Declaration of Independence in 
1776, described themselves as doing it ' as with halters about their necks.' If 
there were grounds for this remark in 1776, when the cause had become so 
much more general, how much greater was the hazard when the battle of Bun- 
ker Hill was fought ! " — Daniel Webster, in " North American Review," July, 
1S18, p. 227. 



^T. 6i-72.] Closing Years, 327 

dier and the under officers might be spared, but a man mov- 
ing in so high a sphere, and exerting such an immense in- 
fluence, would be a sure mark for vengeance. Yet he halted 
not at the first, and never wavered to the end. Twice at 
least the British approached him, in the early days of the 
struggle, with the promise of great honors and rewards, if 
he would leave the patriot service and come over to their 
side; which offers he scornfully rejected. Then the fight- 
ing of the battle of Bunker Hill broke, at the outset, the 
spell of British invincibility. The conflicts at Lexington 
and Concord had done something, but this was only gue- 
rilla warfare, and not a pitched battle. When the British 
army, on Saturday night, June 17th, found one-third of the 
men taken into that action lying dead or wounded on those 
Charlestown slopes, the day of their idle boasting was over, 
and the awful dread of the " regulars " was removed, in a 
large measure, from the minds of the American people. The 
consequences of that battle were immense ; and it becomes 
all lovers of their country to see to it that the glory of that 
action shall not be taken away from the man to whom it 
belongs. It was only by immense force, activity and per- 
suasion, that General Putnam succeeded in getting the bat- 
tle fought at all; and when it was fought, it was with 
such hindrance of his plans, such impediments thrown in 
his way, such a hang-back spirit on the part of many of the 
Massachusetts regiments, that he deserves a double glory 
for bringing it to so successful a completion. We shall 
ever contend, in the clear light of contemporaneous and 
subsequent history, that the plan of that battle was his, and 
the conduct of the battle was his. 

But the time drew near when the hero of many conflicts, 
and the conqueror on many a field, was himself to die. 
Through all those eleven years after his separation from 
the army, he had been continued in the use of all his men- 



328 Life of Israel Putnam. [1779-90. 

tal faculties, though his body could no longer render the 
service of the earlier days. He was of an eminently happy 
temperament, and the enjoyments of his life were such as 
we have seen. 

His death, at last, did not come in a repetition of the 
paralytic shock, as might naturally enough have been ex- 
pected. On the 17th of May, 1790, he was attacked with 
an inflammatory disorder which did not yield to medicine, 
and which was rapid in its march. He died two days after. 
May 19th, 1790, having entered in the previous January 
upon his 73d year. 

His death stirred the entire population in the coun- 
try towns of his neighborhood. They knew that a brave 
and noble-hearted patriot had fallen, and they desired to do 
honor to his memory. General Humphreys says in this 
connection (pp. 165-66), — 

" Much of his life had been spent in arms, and the military of 
the neighborhood were desirous that the rites of sepulture should 
be accompanied with martial honors. They felt that this last trib- 
ute of respect was due to a soldier, who from a patriotic love of 
country had devoted the best part of his life to the defence of her 
rights and the establishment of her independence, and who, 
through long and trying services, was never once reproached for 
misconduct as an officer ; but when disease compelled him to re- 
tire from service, left it, beloved and respected by the army and 
his chief, and with high claims to the grateful remembrance of the 
countiy. 

"Under these impressions, the grenadiers of the nth regiment 
(of Connecticut troops), the independent corps of artillerists, and 
the militia companies in the neighborhood, assembled each at 
their appointed rendezvous early on the morning of the 21st, 
and having repaired to the late dwelling-house of the deceased, 
a suitable escort was formed, attended by a procession of the 
Masonic brethren present, and a large -concourse of respectable 



^T. 61-72.] Closing Years. 329 

citizens, which moved to the Congregational meeting-house in 
Brooklyn ; and after divine service by the Rev, Dr. Whitney, all 
that was earthly of a patriot and hero was laid in the silent tomb, 
under the discharge of volleys from the infantry and minute guns 
from the artillery." 

The following is a brief extract from the sermon of Dr. 
Whitney, in which he delineated the marked traits of Gen- 
eral Putnam's character : 

" He was of a kind, benevolent disposition, pitiful to the dis- 
tressed, charitable to the needy, and ready to assist all who 
wanted his help. In his family he was the tender and affec- 
tionate husband, the provident father, an example of industry 
and close application to business. He was a constant attendant 
upon the public worship of God from his youth up. He brought 
his family with him when he came to worship the Lord, He was 
not ashamed of family religion. His house was a house of 
prayer. For many years he was a professor of religion. There 
is one, at least, to whom he freely disclosed the workings of his 
mind — his convictions of sin — his grief for it — his dependence 
on God through the Redeemer for pardon, and his hope of a 
future happy existence whenever his strength and heart should 
fail him." 

At the grave a brief address was made by Dr. A. Waldo, 
a physician, from which we copy these few words : 

" Born a hero, whom nature taught and cherished in the lap of 
innumerable toils and dangers, he was terrible in battle. But 
from the amiableness of his heart, when carnage ceased, his hu- 
manity spread over the field like the refreshing breezes of a sum- 
mer evening. The prisoner, the wounded, the sick, the forlorn, 
experienced the delicate sympathy of this soldier's pillar. The 
poor and the needy of every description, received the charitable 
bounties of this Christian soldier." 

The monument that covers his tomb is now a struc- 
ture of brick work, built up two or three feet from the 



330 Life of Israel Putnam. [1779-90. 

ground, on which a stone slab was laid, bearing this inscrip- 
tion, prepared for the purpose by Dr. Timothy Dwight, 
President of Yale College : 

SACRED BE THIS MONUMENT 

to the memory 

of 

ISRAEL PUTNAM, ESQUIRE, 

Senior Major-General in the armies 

of 

the United States of America, 

who 

was born at Salem, 

in the Province of Massachusetts, 

on the 7th day of January, 

A. D. 1718, 

and died 

on the 19th of May, 

A. D. 1790. 



PASSENGER, 

if thou art a soldier, 

drop a tear over the dust of a Hero, 

who 

ever attentive 

to the lives and happiness of his men, 

dared to lead 

where any dared to follow; 

if a Patriot, 

remember the distinguished and gallant services 

rendered thy country 

by the Patriot who sleeps beneath this marble ; 

if thou art honest, generous and worthy, 

render a cheerful tribute of respect 

to a man 

whose generosity was singular, 

whose honesty was proverbial ; 

who 

raised himself to universal esteem, 

and ofifices of eminent distinction, 

by personal worth 

and a 

useful life. 



^T. 6 1-72.] Closing Years. 331 

Within a few years, a more befitting monument has been 
erected, which the State of Connecticut bore a part in 
building. 

Mr. George Canning Hill, who a few years since pub- 
lished a life of General Putnam, designed more especially 
for youth, but fitted to readers of any age, in his closing 
paragraph, gives the following picture of the old tomb-stone 
and its surroundings : 

" The brave old man, who never knew the meaning of fear, 
sleeps quietly in this humble grave. A devious path has been 
worn among the hillocks of the little yard, by the feet of those 
who have come, year by year, to look upon his last resting-place. 
On the still summer afternoons the crickets chirp mournfully in 
the long grass, and the southerly breeze wails in the belt of pines 
that neighbor upon the spot. The associations are all of a 
thoughtful sadness. But it is good for one to visit the graves of 
the heroes who have departed, where he may kindle anew the 
sentiment of patriotism, without which he can becojpae neither an 
estimable citizen nor a noble man." 




Putnam's Tomb. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE BUNKER HILL CENTENNIAL* 

Spirit of the Day. — Commendable Action on the Part of Massachusetts and 
Boston. — Efforts of Individuals to make it a Day for Prescott's Glory. — 
Outward Beauty of the Day. — The Military Review in the Morning. — 
The Procession. — Incidents. 

IT has been made sufficiently apparent, perhaps, by the 
course of the preceding narrative, that if there had been 
no battle of Bunker Hill, June i/th, 1775, except what 
Colonel Prescott and the Massachusetts regiments fought, 
there would have been nothing which we should have cared 
particularly to celebrate June 17th, 1875. The centen- 
nial day therefore was not a Boston day or a Massachusetts 
day. It was a New England day in especial, and an 
American day in general ; and we are happy to say, so far 
as the organic action of the State of Massachusetts is con- 
cerned, or the corporate action of the city of Boston, every 
thing was conceived and carried out on the largest and 
most catholic scale. There was no attempt on their part, 
so far as can be discovered, to fly in the face of history 
and attempt to make this day exclusively their own. So 
far from this, they did not even seek by their arrangements 
to make it a New England day, though it was alone by 

* Hither came that way-worn " Pilgrim," in the " New Pilgrim's Progress," 
published at Hartford, Connecticut. Setting out at Plymouth in 1620, by de- 
vious and sometimes forced marches, but with rapid progress, he brought up 
in these parts on the 17th of June, 1875. The last record we have of him and 
his travels, is the following : " Goes to Bunker Hill to pay his respects to the 
illustrious men who commanded General Putnam." 



The Bunker Hill Centennial. 333 

the sons of New England that the battle was fought. 
Their thoughts were not circumscribed within these narrow 
boundaries. They made the occasion one of a broad na- 
tional character, as was fit and becoming. They invited 
their guests from the east and the west, the north and the 
south, as having, all of them, a common interest in that first 
great battle which marked the nation's struggle and move- 
ment towards liberty and independence. The largeness of 
view and of plan with which the State and city took action, 
to make this centennial day a grand and noble occasion, 
has been most widely and justly commended. 

But as the time drew on, and the bustle of preparation 
began to be heard, it became apparent that certain individ- 
uals, here and there, either acting separately or by concert, 
were disposed to seize this occasion to consummate a 
special and peculiar object, and put the great crown of 
leadership upon the head of Colonel William Prescott. 
Some of the Boston newspapers had almost daily drop- 
pings, " here a little and there a little," in the service of this 
particular idea. Larger periodicals wrought in the same 
direction. Books began to appear, to educate the public 
mind up to the required standard. One of Boston's favo- 
rite and bright-minded poets, to aid the general jubilee, 
chimed in with the following historical line in a graceful 
and effective poem : 

" It was Prescott, one since told me, he commanded on the hill." 

The " one " that " told " him was probably the same man 
that has been largely employed in furnishing the modern 
evidence. But to any one who had studied the real history 
of this battle, all this wore a very peculiar aspect, though 
it was amusing to watch by how many processes and agen- 
cies the name of Prescott was made to fill the air in the 
early days of June, 1875. 



334 Life of Israel Putnam. 

It was of course something of a shock to the finer feel- 
ings, a kind of rude invasion of all the proprieties of the 
time, when the famous New Yorlc Seventh Regiment came 
into Boston, singing their regimental song composed for the 
occasion, every one of whose nine stanzas ends with the 
following chorus : 

" We won the victory at that fight, 
We knew we should, for we were right ; 
Old Putnam led the men that night, 
At Bunker Hill, at Bunker Hill." 

It was evident that those young men had not received a 
good Boston education. It jarred a little, too, upon the sensi- 
bilities to have General Sherman, after the oration under the 
great tent on Bunker Hill, get up and say of General Putnam, 
" He was a glorious old soldier, and his services and exam- 
ples are worth a dozen monuments like this on Bunker Hill, 
even if made of pure gold." But then some latitude of 
speech must be allowed to so distinguished a guest as Gen- 
eral Sherman. And because he had said before, " Prescott 
was the actual commander on this spot" {i. e., where the 
tent stood, and where the monument stands), one of the 
Boston papers immediately seized upon that remark, and 
quoted Sherman as having sanctioned the notion that Pres- 
cott was commander-in-chief. In that remark he said only 
what all writers say, what has been freely and constantly 
said throughout this volume. Of course, Prescott was the 
local commander at the redoubt on Breed's Hill. Who 
ever denied it } 

But notwithstanding all this care and precaution on the 
part of individuals, to give a Prescott turn and a Prescott 
flavor to everything, the city itself went on its way with 
dignity. There was a practical common sense in its action, 
showing that it did not propose to go against the old estab- 



The Bunker Hill Centennial. 335 

lished history. There were coarse paintings executed to be 
put upon the front of the City Hall in School Street, at 
each corner of the front entrance to the building, well up 
on the walls, where they would be visible to every passer 
by. General Joseph Warren, the volunteer and martyr, was 
chosen as the subject of one of these pictures, and General 
Israel Putnam, the chief commander in the battle, was 
chosen for the other. The corporate body that ordered 
this work done was evidently im.pervious to the new ideas. 
Its action was in the spirit of the fathers. These were not 
very good pictures, it is true. They were not prepared as 
works of art. They were made for a temporary use, and 
were designed to speak, not to the aesthetic eye, but to the 
imagination and the heart. The picture of General Put- 
nam was taken from the painting by Wilkinson in London, 
in 1775, which we have described in our chapter on the 
Literature and Art of Bunker Hill. 

A communication, however, soon appeared in a Boston 
paper, the opening part of which was devoted to this topic of 
the pictures placed upon the City Hall, and read as follows : 

" You have already expressed emphatically your sense of the 
wrong done in the omission of any recognition of the claims of 
Colonel Prescott to any share of the honors of Bunker Hill in 
the display on the front of the City Hall. If we try to put a chari- 
table construction upon that seeming slight upon the commander 
of the provincial forces, we might infer that when those who 
provided for that display had taken note of the skill of the artist 
in the figures labelled Warren and Putnam, they kindly concluded 
to spare Prescott, as he had already suffered enough in the cari- 
cature of him by Trumbull. Happily, however, that omission 
and slight, which might have had some significance as indicating 
the judgment of a committee in the distribution of the awards of 
fame, are more than compensated by the decided and well-sus- 
tained utterance of the orator of the day, giving to Prescott the 
honor which belongs to him." 



336 Life of Israel Putnam, 

Soon after, the Bunker Hill Association met, and took 
action toward erecting another monument on Breed's Hill 
(now commonly called Bunker Hill), to the honor of Colo- 
nel William Prescott This association in their action at 
this meeting did not name Colonel Prescott as commander- 
in-chief. So far as their vote is concerned, that point is 
left indefinite, and the enterprise may base itself, if it will, 
upon Colonel Prescott's personal merits and services, with- 
out regard to his exact military standing. 

But leaving these things aside, we turn to the day and 
the occasion itself. It was a morning of summer splendors 
without oppressive summer heat, — very different in this 
respect from the day when the battle was fought. On this 
centennial morning the sun shone in full glory, but a gentle 
breeze was stealing in from the ocean, which tempered the 
heat to the point of comfort. As the military host, gathered 
from every part of Massachusetts, and from many other 
States, — their dress clean and their weapons bright, — 
passed in their morning review before General Sherman 
and many other distinguished men, civil and military, stand- 
ing upon an extended platform erected for the purpose in 
front of the State House yard, the scene was extremely 
brilliant. It took the military bodies an hour and three- 
quarters to pass before that stand (and there were no long 
delays in the marching). As the regiments came up on 
the bend of Beacon Street and neared the stand, their own 
marching bands ceased playing, and the music for the re- 
view was supplied by two of the best bands that could be 
selected, who were kept stationary near the stand, and 
played by turns. All this morning review passed before 
the procession for the day was formed, and never was there 
a summer morning better fitted to give eclat to such a mili- 
tary march. General Sherman, in his speech on Bunker 
Hill, meant of course to include what happened later in the 



The Btmker Hill Centennial. ^^'/ 

day with this scene of the morning, when he pronounced 
the whole " one of the most gorgeous pageants that has 
ever occurred on this continent." The mihtary display 
was finest in the morning review. The men were fresh, 
the sun was sparkling, and the enthusiasm of the soldiers 
had not become jaded by weariness. As they passed be- 
fore that stand, where so many searching and distinguished 
eyes were looking at them, and the band was playing its 
high festal music, they moved like men with wings to their 
feet. There was a springiness, an elasticity in their step, 
of which they were half unconscious. But they were lifted 
out of themselves and were blended with the great forces 
of feeling and emotion around them. Any one who looked 
upon that morning march from the vicinity of the State 
House steps will never forget it. 

The procession was not ready to move till about 2 o'clock, 
and it had a route of six miles to travel. It may give one 
some impression of the length of the procession itself, if 
we say that the head of that military column leading the 
procession had completed its march of six miles, just as 
the last half of the procession began to untangle itself to 
set out on its journey; in other words, the procession was 
twice as long as, the route was. Before this procession 
moved, the easterly breeze which was quiet in the morning, 
had increased its force, bringing in a half-haze from the 
ocean, making the air very invigorating for those who were 
on the march, and quite as cool as those sitting or standing 
as spectators wished it to be. But for the military, and all 
the pedestrian bodies and associations, that long march was 
performed under circumstances as favorable as a day in 
June could ever be expected to give. To those who rode 
in carriages, or who looked on from streets and open win- 
dows, before the day ended extra shawls and wrappers were 
not uncomfortable. Through the night that followed, this 
22 



338 Life of Israel Putnam. 

sea-breeze increased and brought on a chilly rain, and the 
next morning was as dismal as the morning of the 17th 
was brilliant.* 

Of the crowds that witnessed this spectacle, all attempts 
at enumeration would be comparatively idle. There was 
no place along the line where the crowd was not. But 
probably the most exciting point in the route, was in the 
wide open spaces of Columbus Avenue. The soldiers who 
marched in the procession, all seem to declare that the 
effect here was most exciting and half-bewildering. Es- 
pecially toward the farther end of the avenue, where the 
procession turned toward Washington Street, and where the 
children were massed in great numbers on upraised seats, 
tier above tier, waving flags, and filling the air with cheers, 
the effect was almost overpowering, and some of the offi- 
cers and soldiers on that march, could hardly tell " whether 
they were in the body or out of the body." 

The day was eminently successful. Many a man and 
woman went home that night, never expecting to see such 
a spectacle on earth again. 

But happiest of all was the blending of hearts long es- 
tranged, bringing men together from the ends of the land, 
and making them feel like brothers, sharers in one common 
country and heritage. 



As we lay down our pen, at the close of this volume, we 
are moved to say that if we have ever written under a pro- 
found conviction of the truth of what we were writing, it 
has been in the preparation of this book. Nothing but the 
clear belief that history has here been turned aside from 
its true purpose would ever have moved us to this task. 

* One of the mottoes on the wagons of the " Great Atlantic and Pacific 
Tea Company," loaded with chests of tea and bags of coffee (the motto ap- 
plying especially to the latter), caught the spirit of the occasion on the Gen- 
eral Putnam side. " We are all Colonels here, and one Colonel is as good as 
another." 



The Bunker Hill Centennial. 339 

The writer has no family relationships or friendships on 
either side, nor was he moved to this labor by any one hav- 
ing such relationships. No descendant of General Putnam 
ever knew of the enterprise until long after it was on its 
way. The appeal was made by the facts of the case to the 
sense of general justice and historical truth. 

More and more clearly is it seen that the man who con- 
trived and executed that Bunker Hill battle struck a blow 
of immense consequence for his country and for posterity. 
That the honor of this achievement should be taken from 
its rightful owner, and especially from one so noble, gener- 
ous and self-denying as General Putnam, that he should be 
robbed of this hard-earned glory, and that it should be given 
over to those who are, to some extent, the natural success- 
ors of the very men that failed him in the time of his sorest 
need, that Massachusetts and her sons should claim the 
peculiar honors of a victory, which, under bad leadership, 
she helped rather to prevent, — this is using history for an 
unworthy purpose. And it is because we believe this that 
we have written this book. If at any point we have spoken 
unjustly or too warmly, we ask pardon of the reader; and 
if we never live to see this error taken out of American his- 
tory, we have the full conviction that the time will come, 
when the whole nation will give the honors of the battle of 
Bunker Hill largely to the common soldiers of New Hamp- 
shire who, more than any other men, fought it; and to 
brave old General Putnam, who conceived the plan, and was 
chief commander on the field. The two hundred men from 
Connecticut performed extraordinary services, but they 
were few in number. Their heroic faithfulness has always 
been spoken of in terms of highest praise. The men at the 
redoubt who patiently endured and suffered to the end, are 
worthy of all honor. But the battle was fought chiefly by 
the soldiers of New Hampshire, whose muskets killed and 



340 Life of Israel PutJiam. 

wounded probably two out of three in that list of ten hun- 
dred and sixty-four, which General Gage reported to the 
home government. 

If a monument is to be erected upon that battle-ground 
to any Colonel, it should be to Colonel Stark of New Hamp- 
shire, whose services in the strife were more important 
than those of any other man bearing that title. 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX. 



A. 

ADDRESS OF HON. HENRY C. DEMING, 1859. 

The battle sword of Major-General Israel Putnam was pre- 
sented, last night, to the Connecticut Historical Society, in the 
presence of a vast assemblage, in Dr. Bushnell's Church. The 
Hon. Henry C. Deming delivered the address, a portion of which 
is copied below. No outline could do anything like justice 
to the speaker's masterly analysis of the evidence by which Put- 
nam's title to the honor of having commanded, as general-in- 
chief, throughout the fight on Bunker Hill, was settled as we be- 
lieve for ever. Connecticut owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. Dem- 
ing for this laborious but successful refutation of the attacks 
which Bostonians have made upon General Putnam's fame. 
Henry Barnard, LL. D., President of the Connecticut Histori- 
cal Society, being in the chair, Mr. Deming took his position at 
a table in front of the pulpit, and said, — 

" Mr. Lemuel Putnam Grosvenor, late of Pomfret, having in- 
herited from his grandfather. General Israel Putnam, the sword 
which he wielded in the battles of the Revolution, and bequeathed 
it to the Connecticut Historical Society, I have been deputed to 
deliver it into your hands, and not informally, but with all the 
honors, not briefly, but with suitable prelude, to introduce this 
relic and emblem of Connecticut's noblest soldier to an imperial 
seat in this assemblage of Connecticut's worthiest historic num- 
bers. In discharging this duty, on the one hundred and forty- 
first anniversary of his birth, after the battles in which he fought 

343 



344 Life of Israel Putnam. 

have all been finally passed upon by history, and the foes who 
dared assail him in the grave have proved that he could van- 
quish still, it hath seemed proper to me to place in your archives, 
in company with the sword he wore in war, a careful and delib- 
erate estimate of his military career and servicesi" 
[Here follows the passage quoted in Chapter IV.] 
" Let it not be supposed, however, because Israel Putnam was 
shaped thus by the times in which he lived, and the circumstances 
in which he was placed, because he was not made and trained to 
lead great armies and conduct great campaigns, that he was un- 
equal to the grander emergencies which sometimes try the gen- 
uineness of heroism. There was enough in him of the unal- 
loyed, heroic metal to have stamped his name conspicuously on 
any epoch, and have contended successfully on any field of ad- 
venture. If it had been the mission of his generation to have 
purged Connecticut of Nemean lions and boars and other devour- 
ing monsters, before it could have become a suitable dwelling-place 
for man, he might have been our Hercules, for he would have 
faced a hydra as soon as a wolf ; if posted at the gates of em- 
pire in its last extremity, there was enough in him for another 
Leonidas ; with lance in poise, and battle-axe in hand, against 
overwhelming infidel hosts, a Coeur de Lion might have been 
reproduced in our history ; or hurled against the Austrian centre 
by some remorseless Napoleon, he would have moved steadily 
forward, another Macdonald between an enfilading fire of artil- 
lery, strewing his path with dismantled guns and slaughtered 
battalions, straight to his mark, with the inflexibility of a thun- 
derbolt, and the weight of flying hills slung by Jove's right 

hand 

"Putnam entered the military service of the colony at the 
commencement of the seven years' war with France, and if a de- 
cisive war is one in which a contrary issue would have essentially 
varied the drama of history in all its subsequent scenes, then 
this war deserves to be classed among the decisive wars of the 
world. If France had succeeded in her schemes of American 
conquest, the whole course of civilization on this continent would 
have run in a different channel and have assumed another char- 



Appendix. 345 

acter. At its commencement the English colonists held the sea- 
coast from Nova Scotia to Florida, and the French held the in- 
terior, and had drawn around us on the north and west, from 
Cape Breton to New Orleans, a cordon of settlements which 
could rapidly be converted into garrisons, for every lay French- 
man in America owed military service. At its close the French 
had surrendered all these possessions except the island of Orleans^ 
and the Anglo-Saxon race could roam undisturbed, from the Gulf 
of Mexico to where the frozen barriers of the north arrest the 
march of civilized man. The question determined in the nar- 
row span of time between 1756 and 1763 was whether French 
colonization should transfer to this hemisphere the effete mon- 
archy of Versailles, the dilapidated feudal edifice of Europe, with 
its successive layers of privileged classes built upon crushed and 
suffering labor, with its castes, fatal to the manliness and growth 
of the unprivileged majority, its hierarchy, intolerant of a free 
conscience and hostile even to intellectual enfranchisement, its 
servile tenures baffling by antiquated fines and encumbrances 
the easy transfer of leaseholds and lands, its reactionary spirit 
indifferent to enterprise or social progress, and its despotic ten- 
dencies unchecked by local parliaments, or courts of law, or the 
outspoken remonstrances of indignant freemen ; or whether Eng- 
lish colonization, leaving behind the crown, the mitre and the 
peerage, should plant on this virgin soil constitutional rights, 
freeholds, common law, personal independence, schools, free 
churches, printing presses, colonial legislatures, town organiza- 
tions and municipal self-direction. 

" In this connection, too, we should never forget a secondary 
effect of the seven years' war, in many respects more important 
and manifest even than the primary one to which I have briefly 
adverted. More than twenty-five years ago, Mr. Everett, I be- 
lieve, was the first to observe the manner in which the colonial 
wars were interwoven with the Revolution, and that no ' thought 
of independence could suggest itself, and no plan of throwing 
off the colonial yoke could prosper, while a hostile power of 
French and Canadian savages, exasperated by the injuries in- 
flicted and retaliated for a hundred years, was encamped along 



34^ Life of Israel Putnam. 

the frontier. On the contrary, the habit so long kept up of act- 
ing in concert with the mother country against their French and 
savage neighbors, was one of the strongest ties of interest 
which bound the colonies to the crown.' It is this systematic 
connection of events in which the links of the great chain are 
visible, and the providential meaning of war rendered intelligi- 
ble to finite comprehension, that imparts such a grandeur of in- 
terest to our historic evolution. We can almost see the mighty 
arm which marshals the movement, and as the ordered eras un- 
fold their meaning, discern at least the shadow of God in our 
history. Each billow as it rolls is not self-impelled or indepen- 
dent, but is moved by the one which precedes, and moves the one 
which follows, and all with consenting voices proclaim that so- 
ciety here shall be free, free from barbarism, free from the Euro- 
pean colonial system, free from kings and caste, free from re- 
strictions on its commerce, industry and thought, free to drop its 
worn-out feudal carcass, and be transfigured into a more erect 
and shining presence, and tread with firm footsteps a loftier 
plane, and cherish nobler theories, and speak with a bolder 
tongue, and carry its head nearer the stars. 

" By the light of the present we are able to translate the myste- 
ries of the past, and to detect that philosophic relation of events 
which defied contemporaneous scrutiny, and to see that Pepperell 
at Louisburg, Wolfe at Quebec, Amherst at Montreal, as well as 
Putnam at Bunker Hill, and Gates at Saratoga, and Washington 
at Yorktown, were all striking blows for the independence of the 
States. When the last French forts surrendered, and the last 
French regiment embarked, the lion and the unicorn began to 
fade from our national escutcheon, and to the prophetic eye the 
eagle of liberty was seen grasping the spears and unfolding the 
scroll. 

"To the decisive struggle which threw the western continent 
into the arms of English colonization, and prepared the way for 
the American Revolution and for the American Union, with all 
its self-directing vitality and progressive system of incorporation, 
no provincial, not even Washington, no regular, not excepting 
Wolfe, contributed more steadily and efficiently, or exhibited 



Appendix. 347 

more resolution and gallantry, than Israel Putnam of Mortlake. 
He fought it through, from the first tocsin sound till the treaty 
of Paris terminated the most glorious war England ever fought 
by the most honorable treaty she ever signed. He plunged with 
Williams into the bloody defile where that dauntless philanthro- 
pist fell ; he struggled with Lyman for his dearly bought victory 
over Dieskau ; he received the dying Lord Howe in his arms be- 
fore the fatal breastwork of Ticonderoga ; he marched with Am- 
herst to Montreal, and with Bradstreet to Presque Isle, and when 
Spain became a party to the strife, he served under Abercrombie 
in the West Indies. He waded with frost-bitten feet through 
Canadian snows ; he was bound to a stake, and the fire kindled 
around him in the wilderness of the Horicon ; he was wrecked in 
midsummer under the burning sun of the tropics, and escaped 
from a watery grave only to encounter, before one of the most 
formidable fortresses in America, as frightful a mortality as ever 
battened on human life, and while the hardiest frames were drop- 
ping by his side in the agonies of thirst, or gasping their last in 
the gripe of the pestilence, this iron provincial, under that scorch- 
ing sky, scratched from the crevices of the rock the earth on 
which the siege artillery was planted, and finally joined the for- 
lorn hope who carried Moro Castle by storm. In the forest fast- 
nesses of Michigan, he confronts Pontiac, whose war whoop could 
arm against our settlements every copper-colored warrior of the 
northwest. Putnam was one of the ten thousand victims sent by 
ministerial fatuity from Crown Point to Montreal by the round- 
about way of the New York wilderness and Lake Ontario and 
the River St. Lawrence, — an approach, one would suppose, more 
circumambient than any circumlocution office could devise. Toil- 
ing through the forests and Serbonian bogs that then separated 
Albany from Oswego from the opening of June to the close of 
August, and crossing the lake in open galleys, he at length 
reaches the egress of the St. Lawrence, where the adventurous 
parts of the monotonous march commenced. Sailing down the 
river in bateaux, Putnam leads the boarding party that, with 
nothing but side arms, and a beetle and wedge to pin the rudder, 
carries two French vessels of war that were disputing the pas- 



34^ Life of Israel Putnam. 

sage, and contrives an ingenious engine of bullet-proof boats with 
upright planks twenty feet long in their prows to fall as a bridge 
for the scaling party upon the overhanging stockade of an inac- 
cessible island fortress. The spirit of Putnam exults in such new 
dilemmas, in the impracticabilities and impossibilities of war, and 
if an adventure is once pronounced foolhardy by the martinets he 
feels challenged to execute it. View him paralyzing the blood- 
thirsty Hurons on his track by his audacious escape adown the 
roaring rapids of the Hudson. See him, against the protest of his 
commander, dashing the water on the flames of Fort Edward, 
when the fire was licking the combustible sides of the cracked 
powder magazine ; leading a detachment to Noddle's Island in 
the face of his enemies, up to his waist in mud and water ; pre- 
cipitating himself down the declivity at Horseneck, ' impractica- 
ble ' to the British troopers in pursuit. Recall these and forty 
other similar exploits of hairbrained knight-errantry, if you would 
learn his contempt for impossibilities and how parsimoniously 
prudence was employed in moulding him. It was quite uniform- 
ly the case, as upon the St. Lawrence, in emergencies that were 
entirely novel, in difficulties unprecedented, in front of obstacles 
which engineering had provided no rules for storming, when mili- 
tary science halted in despair, and all the resources of experience 
were exhausted, for the officers of his Majesty graciously to sur- 
render operations to the untaught leader, who held a commission 
from the hand of nature, and drew only upon original genius for 
his plans and expedients. And even in our revolutionary war 
his Continental superiors in similar straits were not slow in imi- 
tating the judicious deference of the British regulars to his inge- 
nuity. When a thing was to be done by a mad temerity alone, 
or with grossly inadequate means, and at the grievous risk of life 
and reputation, Putnam, as a special favor, was always permitted 
to do it, both in the French War and in the Revolution, and it is 
but fair to say that so far from requiring great urging to under- 
take such an adventure, he always leaped into it as into the arms 
of blooming joy. 

" The part of this large field, thus hastily sketched in outline, 
which Putnam most bountifully filled in with his peculiar and 



Appendix. 349 

characteristic audacity, was that region of unsurpassed natural 
beauty where, on the side of France, Ticonderoga and Crown 
Point, and on that of England, Forts William Henry and Ed- 
ward, stand as sentinels at the gateway of the Canadas and Lake 
George, and the head waters of the Hudson lie in the embrace of 
mountains. To say that for five campaigns in summer and win- 
ter, these crimsoned acres were his dwelling-place and home, 
that he rushed into battles and skirmishes which were the daily 
exercise of this bloody ring, as if he had forty lives to spare, 
would be but a meagre epitome of this chapter in his biography. 
Every ravine of this broken region was his ambush, every brake 
or outlook upon these frowning mountains his bivouac ; scarcely a 
rod of its soil was unimpressed by the foot, or a reach of its water 
uncut by the oar, of one who was not only the soldier but the en- 
gineer, laborer, scout and spy of a great natural amphitheatre 
where the two rival nations of Europe were in hand-to-hand 
fight for the mastery of America. A warfare in which the out- 
posts of the two armies were within hailing distance, and hostile 
picket guards and scouting parties were constantly crossing and 
intersecting each other, and the woods were alive with scalp- 
hunting Indians, was precisely the kind. of warfare for Putnam's 
cool judgment, desperate courage, and fertility of resource. A 
Turenne, or Marlborough, or Wellington, with their marches and 
counter marches and grand movements and learned strategy, 
would have been useless as carpet knights in the rough and tum- 
ble attacks and defence that were hourly improvised here. 
Science and tactics availed nothing, but a foot that never wea- 
ried, an arm that never failed, an eye that could decipher the 
hieroglyphics of the trail, an ear that could distinguish the ordi- 
nary voices of nature from the concerted signals of wily foe, a 
cunning that could circumvent infernal ingenuity in mischief, a 
courage that could not only brave death but roasting by a slow 
fire. It was his romantic exploits on this conspicuous field in 
reconnoitering the enemy's lines, gaining intelligence, cutting off 
straggling parties, beating up the quarters and capturing advance 
guards, scouring the woods, outlying on Indian war-paths, leading 
forlorn hopes, succeeding in retreats and escapades that were 



350 Life of Israel Putnam. 

scarcely less than miraculous, in danger the most desperate yet 
never yielding to despair, in perils the most terrific without losing 
self-command, in ambuscades yet facing the foe, hopeless but 
not helpless, cast down but not destroyed, defeated but not van- 
quished, often entrapped and but once caught, falling into clay 
pits with fourteen bullet holes in his blankets, diving into chasms 
and down rapids amidst a shower of balls, standing bound to a 
tree without the power of dodging, between two sharp-shooting 
war parties, and with his head the target at which expert Indians 
practised with the tomahawk in the brief intervals of the fray, — 
it was such adventures, with his prowess in single combat and re- 
markable good fortune, that won for Putnam the almost super- 
stitious confidence of his associates ; for there were many whose 
skins were not red that held that he was invincible by mortal foe, 
and that no bullet was ever run which could touch him in a mor- 
tal part." .... 

From this point Colonel Deminggoes on at considerable length, 
in a minute examination of the proofs which go to establish the 
fact of Putnam's command at Bunker Hill. 



B. 

LETTER OF COL. JOHN TRUMBULL TO COL. DANIEL 
PUTNAM, AND COL. PUTNAM'S REPLY. 

This letter of Colonel Putnam has probably never before been 

published : 

"New York, March 30th, 1818. 

" Dear Sir : Mr. Hall has just shown me ' The Port Folio ' of 
last month, containing an account of the battle of Bunker Hill, 
which appears ta have been written for the mere purpose of in- 
troducing a most unjustifiable attack upon the memory of your 
excellent father. 

"It is strange that men cannot be contented with their own 
honest share of fame, without attempting to detract from that of 



Appendix. 351 

others ; but after the attempts which have been made to dimin- 
ish the immortal reputation of Washington, who shall be sur- 
prised or who repine at this unenviable attendant on human 
greatness ? 

" In all cases like this, perhaps, the most unquestionable testi- 
mony is that which is given by an enemy. 

"In the summer of 1786, I became acquainted in London with 
Colonel John Small of the British army, who had served in America 
many years, and had known General Putnam intimately during 
the war of Canada, from 1756 to 1763. From him I had the two 
following anecdotes respecting the battle of Bunker Hill. I 
shall nearly repeat his words. Looking at the picture which I 
had then almost completed, he said, ' I don't like the situation 
in which you have placed my old friend Putnam ; you have not 
done him justice. I wish you would alter that part of your pic- 
ture, and introduce a circumstance which actually happened, and 
which I can never forget. When the British troops advanced 
the second time to the attack of the redoubt, I, with the other 
officers, was in front of the line to encourage the men. We had 
advanced very near the works, undisturbed, when an irregular 
fire, like a feu-de-joie, was poured in upon us. It was cruelly fa- 
tal. The troops fell back, and when I looked to the right and 
left, I saw not one officer standing ; I glanced my eye to the 
enemy, and saw several young men levelling their pieces at me. 
I knew their excellence as marksmen, and I considered myself 
gone. At that moment my old friend Putnam rushed forward, 
and striking up the muzzles of their pieces with his sword, cried 
out, " For God's sake, my lads, don't fire at that man ; I love him 
as I do my brother." We were so near each other that I heard 
his words distinctly. He was obeyed ; I bowed, thanked him, 
and walked away unmolested.' 

" The other anecdote relates to the death of General Warren. 

"'At the moment when the troops succeeded in carrying the 
redoubt, and the Americans were in full retreat. General Howe 
(who had been hurt by a spent ball, which bruised his ancle) was 
leaning on my arm. He called suddenly to me, " Do you see 
that elegant young man who has just fallen? Do you know 



352 Life of Israel Ptitnam. 

him ? " I looked to the spot towards which he pointed, " Good 
God, sir, I believe it is my friend Warren." "Leave me, then, in- 
stantly ; run, keep off the troops, save him if possible." I flew 
to the spot. " My dear friend," I said to him, " I hope you are 
not badly hurt ; " he looked up, seemed to recollect me, smiled 
and died ! A musket-ball had passed through the upper part of 
his head.' Colonel Small had the character of an honorable, 
upright man, and could have no conceivable motive for deviating 
from truth in relating these circumstances to me ; I therefore be- 
lieve them to be true. 

" You remember, my dear sir, the viper biting the file. The 
character of your father for courage, humanity, generosity and 
integrity is too firmly established by the testimony of those who 
did know him, to be tarnished by the breath of one who confesses 
that he did jiot. 

"Accept, my dear sir, this feeble tribute to your father's mem- 
cry, from one who knew him, respected him, loved him, — and who 
wishes health and prosperity to you and all the good man's pos- 
terity. John Trumbull. 

"Daniel Putnam, Esq." 

"Brooklyn, 5th May, 1818. 

" My Dear Sir : It was not until the 29th of April that I saw 
General Dearborn's ' account of the battle of Bunker Hill,' and 
it was the same day that ]\Ir. Hall gave me your friendly and 
obliging letter of the 30th of March. 

" I need not tell you how grateful it was to me, after reading 
such a tissue of falsehood and malignity, to find that my father's 
friends partook somewhat of my feelings on the occasion. 

" Mr. Hall told me I was at liberty to make what use of your 
letter should be necessary ; and I have used it to support truth 
and detect falsehood. I hope you will not be displeased that it 
occupies a prominent place in the defence of General Putnam's 
slandered character, which I have written very hastily, and now 
forward to you ; with a request that it may be published in the 
* Port Folio,' whose pages have been stained with the malicious 
representations of General Dearborn. 

" The editor, if he possess a particle of that impartiality which 



Appendix. 353 

ought always to characterize the conductor of a public journal, 
cannot, I think, refuse this act of justice to the memory of the 
insulted dead. 

" With much respect, I am, dear sir, your obliged and grateful 
friend, D, Putnam." 

"Colonel Trumbull." 



BRITISH ACCOUNTS OF THE BATTLE. 

At what precise time the news of the battle of Bunker Hill first 
reached England it may be difficult to determine. From certain 
items which we have given in Chapter XI., it would seem that 
the reports had reached that country as early as July 19th. 
Gage's official report was not dated until June 25th, eight days 
after the battle, and that report was published in England near 
the last of July. But it was charged in England that " the min- 
istry received this account several days before it was announced." 
It will be seen by one of the following papers that Gage's ac- 
count was published before the end of July, notwithstanding the 
delay on this side before sending, and the delay on the other side 
before publishing. At that season of the year, vessels were pass- 
ing and repassing quite frequently, and the news, if started from 
our shores immediately after the battle, would have reached Eng- 
land by a little after the middle of July. 

It would be easy to copy English articles on this subject upon 
the government side, showing great bitterness of spirit, and treat- 
ing the people of this country with contempt ; but in such selec- 
tions as we here make we wish rather to illustrate what has been 
several times stated in this volume, viz., that we had many warm 
friends among the English people of that day who were not 
afraid to utter their thoughts freely against the course of the 
British government. 
23 



354 Life of Israel Putnam. 

GENERAL GAGE'S FULL ACCOUNT. 

Annexed is a copy of a letter written by General Gage to the 
Earl of Dartmouth, describing the event. It is taken from an 
English magazine, published in July, 1775, at London, 

" Boston, June 25th, 1775. 
" My Lord : I am to acquaint your Lordship of an action that 
happened on the 17th inst., between his Majesty's troops and a 
large body of the rebel forces. An alarm was given at break of 
day on the 17th inst., by a firing from the Lively ship-of-war ; 
and advice was soon after received that the rebels had broke 
ground and were raising a battery on the heights of the peninsula 
of Charlestown, against the town of Boston. They were plainly 
seen at work, and in a few hours a battery of six guns played 
upon their v/orks. Preparations were instantly made for landing 
a body of men to drive them off, and ten companies of the grena- 
diers, ten of light infantrj^ with the 5th, 38th, 43d and 52d bat- 
talions, with a proportion of field-artillery, under the command 
of Major-General Howe and Brigadier-General Pigot, were em- 
barked with great expedition and landed on the peninsula with- 
out opposition, under the protection of some ships-of-war, armed 
vessels and boats, by whose fire the rebels were kept within their 
works. The troops formed as soon as landed (the light infantry 
posted on the right, and the grenadiers upon the left ; the 5th 
and 38th battalions drew up in the rear of those corps, and the 
43d and 52d battalions made a third line). The rebels upon 
the heights were perceived to be in great force and strongly 
posted. A redoubt thrown up on the i6th at night, with other 
w^orks full of men, defended with cannon, and a large body posted 
in the houses in Charlestown, covered their right flank ; and their 
centre and left were covered by a breastwork, part of it cannon- 
proof, which reached from the left of the redoubt to the Mystic 
or Medford River. This appearance of the rebels' strength, and 
the large columns seen pouring in to their assistance, occasioned 
an application for the troops to be reinforced with some com- 
panies of light infantry and grenadiers, the 47th battalion and 
the I St battalion of marines; the whole, when in conjunction, 



Appendix. 355 

making a body of something above two thousand men. These 
troops advanced, formed in two lines, and the attack began by a 
sharp cannonade from our field-pieces and howitzers, the lines 
advancing slowly, and frequently halting to give time for the 
artillery to fire. The light infantry was directed to force the left 
point of the breastwork, to take the rebel line in flank, and the 
grenadiers to attack in front, supported by the 5th and 52d bat- 
talions. These orders were executed with perseverance, under a 
heavy fire from the vast number of the rebels, and notwithstand- 
ing various impediments before the troops could reach the works, 
and though the left under Brigadier-General Pigot was engaged 
also with the rebels at Charlestown, which at a critical moment 
was set on fire, the Brigadier pursued his point, and carried the 
redoubt. The rebels were then forced from their strongholds 
and pursued till they were drove clear off the peninsula, leaving 
five pieces of cannon behind them. The loss -the rebels sus- 
tained must have been considerable, from the great numbers they 
carried off during the time of action, and buried in holes, since 
discovered, exclusive of what they suffered by the shipping and 
boats ; near one hundred were buried the day after, and thirty 
found wounded in the field, three of whom are since dead. I 
enclose your Lordship a return of the killed and wounded of his 
Majesty's troops. This action has shown the superiority of the 
King's troops who, under every disadvantage, attacked and de- 
feated above three times their own number, strongly posted and 
covered by breastworks. The conduct of Major-General Howe 
was conspicuous on this occasion, and his example spirited the 
troops, in which Major-General Clinton assisted, who followed 
the reinforcement. And the success of the day must in great 
measure be attributed to his firmness and gallantry. Lieutenant- 
Colonels Nesbit, Abercrombie and Clarke ; Majors Butler, Wil- 
liams, Bruce, Spendlove, Smelt, Mitchell, Pitcairne and Short 
exerted themselves remarkably ; and the valor of the British offi- 
cers and soldiers was at no time more conspicuous than in this 
action. 

" I have the honor to be, etc., Tho. Gage." 



356 Life of Israel Putnam. 

EXTRACTS FROM THE "BRITISH ANNUAL REGISTER" FOR 1775. 

" The attack was begun by a most severe fire of cannon and 
howitzers, under which the troops advanced very slowly toward 
the enemy, and halted several times to afford an opportunity to 
the artillery to ruin the works, and to throw the provincials into 
confusion. Whatever it proceeded from, whether from the num- 
ber, situation, or countenance of the enemy, or from all together, 
the King's forces seem to have been utiusually staggered in this 

attack The provincials stood this severe and continued 

fire of small arms and artillery with a resolution and perseve- 
rance which would not have done discredit to old troops. They 
did not return a shot until the King's forces had approached al- 
most to the works, when a most dreadful fire took place, by which 
a number of our bravest men and officers fell. Some gentlemen 
who had served in the most distinguished actions of the late war 
declared that, for the time it lasted, it was the hottest engage- 
ment they ever knew. It is, then, no wonder if, under so heavy 
and destructive a fire, our troops were thrown into some disorder. 
It is said that General Howe was, for a few seconds, left nearly 
alone ; and it is certain that most of the officers near his person 
(who were picked out by the sharpshooters) were either killed or 
wounded 

"Thus ended the hot and bloody affair of Bunker Hill, in 
which we had more men and officers killed and wounded, in 
proportion to the number engaged, than in any other action 
which we can recollect. The whole loss in killed and wounded 
amounted to one thousand and fifty-four, of whopi two hundred 
and twenty-six were killed ; of these nineteen were commissioned 
officers, two Majors and seven Captains. Seventy other officers 

were wounded The event sufficiently showed the bravery 

of the King's troops The battle of Quebec, in the late 

war, with all its glory, and the vastness of the consequences of 
which it was productive, was not so destructive to our officers as 

this affair of an intrenchment cast up in a few hours The 

Americans said that though they had lost a host, they had almost 
all the effects of a most complete victory, as they entirely put a 



Appendix. 357 

stop to the offensive operations of a large army sent to subdue 
them, and which they continued to blockade in a narrow town. 
They now exulted that their actions had thoroughly refuted those 
aspersions which had been thrown upon them in England, of a 
deficiency in spirit and resolution." 

OBSERVATIONS ON THE GOVERNMENT ACCOUNT OF THE LATE 
ACTION NEAR CHARLESTOWN. 

"London, Aug. ist, 1775. 

" There are two sorts of persons who always persevere uni- 
formly, and without shame, in one unvaried line of conduct, re- 
gardless of the contempt and detestation of mankind. The 
sorts I mean are the thorough virtuous and the thorough scoun- 
drel. To one of these classes most evidently belong the minis- 
ters, who settled the account they have given us in last Tuesday's 
'Gazette.' 

"The action near Boston happened on the 17th of June, yet 
General Gage's letter is dated eight days after, on the 25th of 
June. By this letter it appears that it cost one thousand and 
sixty-four of the troops, killed and wounded, to destroy a re- 
doubt thrown up only the overnight, i. e., on the i6th of June. 
The loss of the provincials, the letter says, must have been con- 
siderable, yet eight days after the action, the General, though 
completely victorious, can tell us only of one hundred buried 
and thirty wounded. But ' they had carried off great numbers 
during the time of action.' Did they so ? That is no great sign 
of flight, confusion and retreat. But ' they buried them in holes.' 
Really ! Why, are our soldiers buried in the air ? But ' the 
King's troops were under every disadvantage.' So truly it seems, 
for we are told in the same letter that they had a proportion of 
field-artillery, and landed on the peninsula without opposition, 
and formed as soon as landed, under the protection of some ships- 
of-war, armed vessels and boats, by whose fire the rebels were 
kept within the works. 

"But 'this action has shown the superiority of the King's 
troops.' Has it, indeed ? How ? Why, they, with a proportion 
of field-artillery and with the assistance of ships, armed vessels 



358 Life of Israel Putnam. 

and boats, and with the encouragement of certain and speedy 
reinforcements if necessary, attacked and defeated above three 
times their own number. What ! three times their own numbers ? 
Of whom, pray ? Of French or Spanish regulars ? No ! of the 
Aiuericans. Of the Americans ? What ! of those dastardly, hypo- 
critical cowards, who (Lord Sandwich knows) do not feel bold 
enough to look a soldier in the face ? Of those undisciplined 
and spiritless Yankees, who were to be driven from one end of the 
continent to the other with a single regiment ? What ! of those 
skulking assassins, who can only fire at a distance from behind 
stone-walls and hedges ? Good God f Was it necessary, to de- 
feat these fellows, that the troops should be spirited by the exam- 
ple of General Howe, assisted by General Clinton ? And can it 
be that Lieutenant-Colonels Nesbit, Abercrombie and Clarke ; Ma- 
jors Butler, Williams, Bruce, Spendlove, Sm£lt, Afitchell, Pitcairne 
and Short should be forced to exert themselves against such pol- 
troons ? Is it possible that this could be an affair in which ' the 
valor of the British officers and soldiers in general was as con- 
spicuous as at any time whatever ' ? and notwithstanding all this, 
that the success in a great measure should be attributed to the 
firmness and gallantry of General Pigot ? 

"Good God I is it come to this at last? Can the regulars, 
with all these exertions, only defeat three times their own number 
of undisciplined cowards, and that too at the expense of one 
thousand and sixty-four (/. e., more than one-half) killed and 
wounded out of ' something above two thousand ' ? Is every re- 
doubt which the Americans can throw up in a short summer 
night to be demolished at this expense ? How many such victo- 
ries can we bear ? Alas ! when I read in the General's letter 
the regular and formidable preparations for attack, ' ten compa- 
nies of grenadiers, ten of light infantry, with the 5th, 38th, 
43d, and 5 2d battalions, with a proportion of field-artillery, un- 
der the command of Major-General Howe and Brigadier-General 
Bigot, -^ and these 'landed on the peninsula under the protec- 
tion of ships-of-war, armed vessels and boats,' and their dread- 
ful fire ; when I read this, I concluded that the next lines would 
tell me of the immediate and precipitate retreat of the Ya?ikees. 



Appendix. 359 

Judge then of my surprise when I read that (instead of being 
at all dismayed with the Sandwich panic) ' large columns ' of 
these cowards ' were seen pouring in to their assistance.' 

" Well, but then comes ' an application for the troops to be 
reinforced with some companies of light infantry and grenadiers, 
the 47th battalion and the ist battalion of marines.' They will 
certainly, thought I, scamper away now. Alas, no ! They stay 
and fight. And to complete my astonishment, I cannot find in 
General Gage's letter where our troops were when he wrote, nor 
what became of them after the action ; whether they have re- 
turned to Boston, or have ventured to encamp without the town ; 
what prisoners they have taken ; what advantages (besides five 
pieces of cannon) result from this bloody action; whether the 
war is now at an end, or what the troops propose to do next, 

" To be serious, I am, for my Qwn part, convinced that the 
event of this execrable dragooning is decided, and that before 
winter there will not be a single soldier of Lord Bute's and Lord 
Mansfield's mercenary troops left upon the continent of America. 

*' With what consolation those noble lords will wipe away the 
tears of the widow and orphans (as well English as American,) 
which these bloody Stuart measures have occasioned, I cannot 
tell ; but I know that my eyes will gush out with joy when they 
see the authors of our domestic miseries receive (what I believe 
they will soon receive) their just reward." 

FURTHER OBSERVATIONS. 

" I have the highest idea of General Howe's military character, 
yet cannot help wondering how he came to suffer the provincials 
to escape, and even carry off their dead, when drove from their 
strong lines ; for I conceive it very easy to have destroyed the 
whole body, after dislodging them so suddenly from their in- 
trenchments, if Mr. Gage is suffered to tell the story right ; I 
can't help observing also, that I never before heard of so many 
men, in proportion to the number, being killed and wounded 
from redoubts made in four hours, and from six pieces of cannon 
only in the redoubts, to oppose one hundred pieces. I therefore 
suspect that the disagreeable scene is not unfolded. 



360 Life of Israel Putnam. 

"One or both of the following conclusions must be drawn from 
this narration : The Americans are either the cleverest fellows in 
the world at making strong lines in three or four hours, or the 
most desperate enemy in defending them ; for by Mr. Gage's ac- 
count, they killed and wounded near half his army, in marching 
up about three hundred yards under a complete train of artillery, 
and all the fire of the navy to cover them ; which, by this account, 
is a new instance of successful defence from one night's labor. 
Hah! Gad! By this rule the Americans will put our whole 
army into the grave or hospitals in three or four nights' work 
and an hour's fire in each morning. I do not remember pre- 
cisely, but am apt to believe that there were not so many officers 
killed and wounded at the battle of Alinden, though the English 
regiments sustained the force of the whole French army for a con- 
siderable time. A six-gun battery, the production of a night's 
digging, had there been ten thousand men to protect it, could 
never have made such havoc against a vast train of artillery, 
and the irresistible fire of our ships, which would sweep on before 
them from every acre of the peninsula. But the true story is not 
told. A Methodist secretary and a Scotch printer can do more 
than our people. They pay off the sins of omission and commis- 
sion of the day by a long prayer at night, and thus settle the ac- 
count between God and the people by an hour's devotion." 

"London, Aug. 8th, 1775. 
" The account of the late action between the Atnericans and 
the troops of General Gage is one of the most evasive and 
unsatisfactory that ever yet obtruded on the public, even through 
the channel of a ministerial paper, and yet it is every way worthy 
of the victory which it affects to describe. The General sent 
out ' something above two thousand men,' of whom something 
above half (/. <?., one thousand and fifty-three) are either killed or 
wounded. The General, however, takes care not to mention 
how many hours were employed in this hopeful business, but 
nevertheless pretends to tell us that great numbers of the enemy 
were destroyed, and seems to have employed his soldiers in dig- 
ging up such as were buried in holes, that he might have power 
to tell the value of his conquest. 



Appendix, 361 

" With all the vanity of a military man, he praises the conduct 
of the officers under his command ; but prudently omits to say 
whether any such advantage has been gained, as may make up for 
the loss of one Lieutenant-Colonel, two Majors, seven Captains, 
nine Lieutenants, fifteen Sergeants, one drummer, one hundred 
and ninety-one rank and file, killed ; and three Majors, twenty- 
seven Captains, thirty-two Lieutenants, eight Ensigns, forty Ser- 
geants, twelve drummers, and seven hundred and six rank and 
file, wounded, and unfit for service. In short, if every time the 
General sends out his brace of thousands, the one-half of them 
should either drop or be rendered useless, we shall soon see an 
end to the war in America, but it cannot be expected to termi- 
sate in our favor. 

"The ministry received this account several days before it was 
announced, but were either unwilling or unable to cook it up for 
the public till after their despatches had been sent away. The 
printer may rely on this assurance from one whose private let- 
ters will always reach him unexamined and uncastrated by the 
spies of government. General Gage is but too well convinced 
that such another victory would oblige him to re-embark his 
troops and sail immediately for England, without attempting any 
further reduction of the Americans. 

" The Captain who brought these despatches from Boston, was 
commanded to declare he had great news of the defeat of the 
Americans, though he had assured many people in the towns 
through which he passed on his way to London that he was 
afraid the accounts he brought would throw the whole nation 
into disorder, and direct its vengeance on the advisers of hostile 
measures in America^ 



362 Life of Israel Ptitiiam. 



D. 

EXTRACTS FROM COMMUNICATIONS FURNISHED BY 
PROF. BENJAMIN SILLIMAN OF NEW HAVEN. 

"I see no reason whatever for the statement that Colonel 
John Trumbull, in his memorable picture of the ''Death of Gen- 
eral Warren at Bunker Hill,' misrepresents the action of General 
Putnam. This officer is represented by Trumbull as at the close 
of the action and in the background valorously leading the re- 
treat which had then become inevitable. The true motive of this 
picture seems to have been lost sight of in the pending contro- 
versy as to who commanded the forces in that action. The 
artist's design was to commemorate the noble patriotism of our 
ancestors, and to convey to posterity a feeling testimony of the 
price they paid for our liberties. This price was paid in the life- 
blood of our noblest and best, and General Warren's death, 
which is the ' eye ' of the picture, is made to stand forth in token 
of these sacrifices. It was not with the artist a question of co?n- 
mand, but of sacrifice and valor. That Trumbull could not have 
been ignorant of any imjDortant matter touching the events of 
June 17th, 1775, is evident from his personal 'Reminiscences,' 
Chapter II. He was Adjutant of Spencer's Connecticut Regi- 
ment, then stationed at Roxbury, and witnessed the battle from 
his position. He soon after made for General Washington a 
sketch map of ' Boston and the surrounding Country and Posts 
of the American Troops,' which is reproduced in his ' Reminis- 
cences,' etc., about the time that he became a member of the 
military family of the commander-in-chief as his second Aid-de- 
Camp. 

" I have before me a narrative statement by Colonel Trumbull 
(in his own handwriting), the substance of which has been printed 
but not published in his ' Description of the four Pictures from 
Subjects of the Revolution,' etc. I copy a paragraph or two 
which pertains to the question in hand 



Appendix. 363 

" * Little was or could be done during the sixty days which 
elapsed between the 19th of April and the 17 th of June to reduce 
this assemblage to order or discipline. Yet such was the zeal of 
the moment, that the determination was taken to advance from 
Cambridge and to establish a post on Breed's Hill, the nearest 
point of approach to Boston, distant little more than half a mile 
from the north part of the town; and on the evening of the t6th 
of June a detachment of twelve or fifteen hundred men, com- 
manded by General Putnam and Colonel Prescott, marched for 
this purpose, arrived at the spot selected at 10 o'clock (at night), 
and commenced throwing up a small redoubt, traces of which 
were visible a few years since 

" ' The British had no knowledge of this movement, until day- 
light exposed to their view the progress which had been made. 
From the moment of this discovery they opened a heavy fire from 
ships and batteries, which was continued incessantly through the 
day, until the attack was made in form by the troops under com- 
mand of General Howe in the afternoon of June 17th, Thus, 
from 10 o'clock in the evening until 4 o'clock in the morning, 
six hours, was all the time which this gallant detachment had to 
prosecute their work without interruption. They were not relieved 
in the morning, but remained all day under the fire of the enemy, 
laboring to complete their work, which they valiantly defended, 
under the immediate orders of the gallant veteran Prescott, with 
the most unflinching bravery ; and quitted their post only when 
their ammunition was entirely expended. 

" ' In the course of the day other troops were ordered down 
from Cambridge to support this first detachment, some of whom 
were deterred from attempting to cross Charlestown Neck by the 
fire of the hostile floating batteries, while others fearlessly dashed 
on and took up positions on the left of the redoubt ; thus formmg 
a line which extended from the redoubt on the right to Mystic 
River on the left, securing their front, at least in appearance, 
by throwing together fences, new mown hay, and whatever else 
was moveable, and could afford some show of shelter. 

" ' Joseph Warren, an eminent physician of Boston, had tor 
some time been distinguished as an ardent and eloquent sup- 



364 Life of Israel Putnam. 

porter of the rights of his country ; at this time he was a very 
influential member of the Provincial Congress, assembled at 
Watertown, near Cambridge, and a few days preceding the bat- 
tle (June 14th) had been elected a Major-General, but as yet had 
assumed no command. He was dressed, and going out to dine, 
when the increasing din of the action impelled him to gallop to 
the scene, where he arrived almost at the moment of defeat, and 
was killed by a ball through the head. 

" ' This is the moment chosen for the painting, which of course 
is limited to that part of the scene which was near the redoubt, 
and where the death of General Warren, and the obstinate re- 
sistance of men almost unarmed to well armed and disciplined 
troops, is meant to be shown. 

" ' In a scene of such extent and confusion as the entire battle, 
half-hidden of course by smoke, it was impossible to represent 
the equal gallantry of these brave troops who formed the line of 
defence between the redoubt and Mystic River, where Major 
Knowlton and many others distinguished themselves by the cool- 
est bravery and the soundest judgment The artist was on 

that day Adjutant of the ist regiment of Connecticut troops, sta- 
tioned at Roxbury, and saw the action from that point.' 

" These extracts plainly show that Trumbull's object in compos- 
ing this picture was as has been already stated. He took the 
liberty of a painter to choose the critical moment of an action 
by bringing Major-General Warren to the front to meet his death, 
while both Prescott and Putnam are thrown into subordinate po- 
sitions in the melee. If this artistic license is what is meant by 
a misrepresentation of the part borne by Putnam on this occa- 
sion, I can only say I think an expression less open to criticism 
might have been used. 

" If anybody has stated, or can state, the date or authority 
for the conversation attributed to Trumbull, as taking place at 
the dinner table of Judge Prescott, or who the guests were at 
that dinner, I shall be glad to know it. 

" But until we have the positive testimony of a competent au- 
thority who was present at the dinner, when Trumbull is reported 
to have said at Judge Prescott's table that he regretted he had 



Appendix. 365 

made the position of Putnam as it is in his picture (or words to 
that effect), I shall hold the whole story as an unfounded and 
mischievous rumor, born of the party spirit which animated Gen- 
eral Dearborn's attack on Putnam in 18 18, 

" I can say, with the knowledge of an original witness, that I 
know from Trumbull's repeated discourses to me on this picture, 
that the one prominent event he intended to signalize was the 
glorious ^eath and sacrifice of Warren, the noble friendship of 
Major Small of the English force, who parried the bayonet thrust 
, of an English grenadier, crying out at the same time, ' Spare the 
fallen brave, he is my friend.' This Small told to Trumbull 
himself, as the latter delighted to relate. As I said before, this 
action is the ' eye of the picture ' (Trumbull's own phrase in de- 
scribing it). Next he intended to record the valor and heroism, 
the unquenched enthusiasm of the Americans, by several subordi- 
nate and yet prominent actions. This is especially seen in the 
heroic stand of Colonel Grosvenor in the foreground, who, though 
wounded in the shoulder and in the sword hand, turns again on 
the enemy as he retreats, supported by his black servant, as if 
he would have ' one more shot : ' an action full of fire and daunt- 
less bravery, which Rogers has again reproduced in one of his 
charming models of the late war, under the same title, * One more 
Shot.' Sculpture and painting were never more in harmony than 
in the expression of this sentiment in those two distinct actions. 
Then the same sentiment of determination and valor is seen in 
the clubbed muskets, the empty guns held at half pose, and more 
than all in the fiery determination of Putnam, who, on foot, rallied 
the forces for a retreat in the last moments of the action. But 
all these skilfully blended actions are held in complete subordi- 
nation to the main action of the whole scene, — ' The Death of 
Warren.' One can hardly restrain a feeling of surprise, border- 
ing on a less respectful sentiment, when the whole soul and pathos 
of such a picture as that of Trumbull's * Death of Warren ' is lost 
sight of, and is viewed through the false colors and distorted 
medium of a provincial prejudice 

" If any man lived at the time who, from his position, his mili- 
tary knowledge, and his perfect impartiality of character, was 



366 Life of Israel Putnam. 

able to judge Putnam aright, it was George Washington He 
was on the ground within three weeks after the action. He at 
once initiated the Courts-Martial which investigated and dealt 
with the cases of alleged unworthy conduct growing out of that 
battle. He brought from the Continental Congress the commis- 
sions for four men destined for promotion to the rank of Major- 
Generals, and of these commissions the only one he awarded 
was to Putnam ! toward whom. he ever after extended his unqual- 
ified confidence, and again and again entrusted with the most im- 
portant commands. Could these things have been, if there had 
existed any, even the least probable, grounds for impugning either 
the valor or the patriotism of Putnam ? To suppose the reverse 
is to assail the judgment and fair-mindedness of the commander- 
in-chief, by whose act General Putnam was made his second in 
command in the Continental armies. Trumbull, in the manu- 
script from which I quoted in my former letter, speaks of the 
'valor of the veteran Prescott.' But Prescott continued in ser- 
vice only two years after, and was never, if I am correctly in- 
formed, advanced beyond the rank of Colonel. While this fact 
may not be in the least to his discredit, certainly no one will be rash 
enough to say that the rapid promotion of Putnam, and the undi- 
minished, nay, constantly increasing confidence with which he 
was regarded by Washington, is any ground, at this late day, for 
an attempt to degrade him from his lofty position, as the bravest 
man of his time, in favor of any other man, however deserving 
he may be. As President John Adams eloquently remarked as 
to the slander on the character of James Otis, * It is mortifying, 
it is astonishing, it is humiliating, to reflect how long a slander 
will be continued and repeated, and how difficult it is to refute 
it ' (Mr. Lowell's ' Review '). Truly, ' Slander runs a mile while 
truth pulls on its boots.' It is a curious characteristic of a cer- 
tain class in this world, that nothing gives them more pleasure 
than to assist in the iconoclastic raid which topples over the peo- 
ple's idols. Every hero since the time of Agamemnon has passed 
this ordeal, and I have no fear that ' Old Put ' will be brought to 
grief by the raids of this day any more than have some of his 
worthy associates, not excepting Washington himself. 



Appendix. 367 

" Note. It may be worth while to note the fact that General 
Warren, in Trumbull's picture, is represented in full dress and with 
a ruffled shirt, conforming in this respect to Trumbull's statement 
that Warren was dressed for and on his way to a dinner, when 
the 'increasing din' led him into the fight, and the fact of his 
late arrival on the field, ' almost in the moment of defeat,' is tes- 
tified to by many others. Putnam is spoken of by several wit- 
nesses who were in the battle, as mounted, and as urging his 
horse impetuously over the field. Trumbull represents him 
(misrepresents, shall we say ?) as on foot. It is not necessary to 
reconcile these unimportant discrepancies, but it is quite proba- 
ble that by the middle of the afternoon he had worn out his 
horse, and possibly the unities of action required of Trumbull to 
unhorse Putnam, not to give him too much prominence, and so 
detract from the prominence given to Warren's central figure." 



E. 

ARTICLES BY HONORABLE JOHN LOWELL, PUBLISHED IN 
"COLUMBIAN CENTINEL," BOSTON, JULY 4TH-15TH, 1818. 

The author, as stated in the body of the book, had copied the 
whole of the seven articles by Mr. Lowell, with the design of 
placing them in this Appendix. They would, however, occupy 
so much space that only two are given, the first and third, with 
two brief extracts from others. These will show what a Boston 
man, of the first quality for character, intelligence and ability, 
thought of General Putnam in the year 18 18. They will show, 
also, what questions were then discussed, and that the modern 
question as between Putnam and Prescott was not then up for 
discussion. 

ARTICLE I. — OF THE AUTHORITY EXERCISED BY GENERAL PUTNAM 
IN THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

" As to the first point, it is a little, and indeed very, curious, and 
shows the utter want of judgment in General Dearborn and his 



368 Life of Israel Putnam. 

friends, that they have endeavored to make it out that Putnam 
had no legitimate cominand on that great and memorable day. If 
this fact, which they have endeavored to prove in the loose and 
unsatisfactory way in which they have conducted the whole of 
this defence against the charge of calumny be true, then General 
Putnam ought not to have been on the ground to take away the 
command from Colonel Prescott. It will be observed that we 
do not admit the fact to be so ; but it goes to the credit of the 
defence ; and shows of what weak and discordant materials it is 
composed. Let us now hear the witness to this point. 

" First, Major Stark, in his letter to Wilkinson, states that he 
never could learn that there was any officer appointed to the 
general command. He further remarks that there ought to have 
been a simultaneous occupation of Bunker Hill as well as of 
Breed's Hill, in order to protect the retreat of our troops. If 
Major Stark is a judicious military man, and this opinion is sound, 
why undertake to censure Putnam for retaining his forces on 
Bunker Hill ? We deny the fact that he did, but to those who 
censure him for it, it is surely a sufficient answer to say that his 
very accusers assert that it was a very suitable measure, and 
might have prevented what Major Stark says would have been 
the ruin of the detachment, the occupation of Bunker Hill, in 
the rear of our troops. Judge Parker, a New Hampshire Judge 
of Probate, a very flippant witness, says there was never any 
proof to his mind, that Putnam was ordered to take the command, 
and that he was only a volunteer, and, of course, in his ideas of 
military law, not subject to a trial. In this way he accounts for 
no notice having been taken of the subject during the last cen- 
tury, and until the present is very considerably advanced. The 
very respectable gentlemen of the clergy of Groton and Pep- 
perell also confirm, from the testimony of their parishioners who 
were in the action, that General Putnam was not present, either 
the night before or during the action. 

" Now, though this is directly opposed to the fact, sufficiently and 
perfectly proved (not, however affecting their veracity, as their 
testimony is derived from channels which may be incorrect), yet, 
if true, and General Dearborn adduces it as such, it proves that 



Appendix. 369 

Putnam could not, without a dereliction of duty and violating 
the rights of others, have advanced from his position on Bunker 
Hill. 

*' We have shown the gross inconsistency of the General's evi- 
dence with his charge against the venerable Putnam. In his ' Ac- 
count of the Battle,' he considers Putnam as having shamefully 
deserted his duty, and as deserving to be shot, or, rather, he repre- 
sents Colonel Prescott as having said so ; and, in his defe7ice, he 
proves by two witnesses, that Putnam had no command on that 
day, and of course could be liable to no censure for not under- 
taking to command Prescott and Stark, of the Massachusetts and 
the New Hampshire lines. It is certainly true, as suggested by 
President Adams and Judge-Advocate Tudor, that there could 
not, in the nature of the case, have been any authorized com- 
mander. The troops were volunteers from three different States, 
under probably royal commissions, perhaps no commissions at 
all. The latter was certainly the case with Stark, who was 
chosen by his troops after their arrival at Medford. But, 
■ although Putnam could have no legal right to command, Ave shall 
show, in the sequel, that he was, in fact, the commander of that 
detachment, and by his orders were the works executed ; that 
they were obeyed as if he were the rightful commander ; and 
that Dearborn's own regiment (that of Colonel Stark) acted and 
fought under his immediate command, and in his presence, that 
day. In short, before the evidence is half through, it will be 
seen that there is at present more proof of General Putnam's ac- 
tive, bold, courageous exertions in the hottest of that battle, in 
the very front of danger, than there is that Dearborn, or even 
Colonel Stark, were in it. 

" It would not be in the power of Washington's friends to prove 
that he was at the battle of Monmouth, by stronger or more com- 
plete evidence than General Putnam's friends can produce, to 
establish his audacious gallantry and coolness on Breed's Hill. 
But this evidence I shall reserve till I take up the third point of 
Putnam's pe7-sonal conduct.^^ 
24 



370 Life of Israel Putnam. 



ARTICLE III. — ON GENERAL PUTNAM'S PERSONAL CONDUCT AT 
THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

" Already we have arrayed the formidable mass of testimony 
in the depositions and statements of Judge Grosvenor, Abner 
Allen, Josiah Hill, and our venerable friend, — whose account is 
not anonymous because he is well known, and its authenticit)' 
may be settled by reference as above proposed. We shall pass 
by, for the present, the unanswerable evidence of Colonel Trum- 
bull as to Colonel Small's declarations, because, although we 
feel, as President Adams does, a sort of instinctive feeling of the 
truth of that anecdote ; although it bears on the face of it, evi- 
dence which thrills in the heart of every honorable man ; yet there 
is a weakness too much cultivated in our country, which leads 
them to value less the testimony of an enemy, although no as- 
signable motive could be invented for such a tale on the part of 
Colonel Small, 

" But let it pass, in order to introduce some of General Dear- 
born's own comrades, in his own regiment, fighting by his side, 
whose eyes were not so blinded but that they could see Putnam 
in the hottest of the fight, even ordering Dearborn's troops. Per- 
haps Putnam came there at the unlucky moment when Captain 
Dearborn, quitting his soldiers, had retreated for the strange pur- 
pose of gathering up the scattered fragments of powder to recruit 
their animunition, — a prudent and overflowing caution, which 
savors at least as much of discretion as of zeal. We take only 
his own account of it, that in the "face of the enemy, and while 
actually pushed by them, he sauntered into the rear, inquired 
into the fate of Warren, and attempted to collect powder, leaving 
his troops without the example of his own determined and des- 
perate courage. 

" Reuben Kemp, now of Brooklyn, in Connecticut, but former- 
ly of Goffstown, State of New Hampshire, deposeth on oath, — 

"'That, in 1775, he was a soldier in Captain Samuel Richard's 
company and Colonel Stark's [Dearborn's] regiment ; that, being 
quartered at Mystic, on the 17th of June, an alarm was given, 



Appendix. 371 

and the regiment ordered to parade at the Colonel's quarters, 
when ammunition was distributed, namely, ten bullets and a 
gill-cup of powder. We sorted our bullets as well as we could; 
and marched to Charlestown Neck. After we arrived at the 
high ground, over the neck, we were ordered to parade our packs 
and guns, and put sentries over them. Here we were furnished 
with intrenching tools and began to throw up a breastwork; 
but we had not been more than ten or fifteen minutes at work 
before the drums beat, and we were marched immediately. An 
officer whom I had never seen \he was in the condition of Dearborn 
and all Stark's troops, who never had seen Putnam\ and whom 
they called General Putnam, seemed to have the ordering of 
things. He charged the men not to fire till the enemy came 
close to the works ; and then to take good aim, and make every 
shot kill a man. But there were a few pieces discharged before 
the order was given to fire. General Putnam appeared very 
angry, and passed along the lines quickly, with his sword drawn, 
and threatened to stab any man that fired without order. The 
enemy kept firing as they advanced, and when they had got 
pretty near the works we were ordered to take good aim and fire. 
At this time General Putnam was constantly passing backward and 
forward, from right to left, telling us the day was our own if we 
would stick to it ; and it was not many minutes before the enemy 
began to retreat. 

" ' Upon being questioned whether he had afterwards known 
Putnam, and recognized him to be the same ofiicer who so gal- 
lantly distinguished himself, he said, " I saw him often after, for 
he commanded on Prospect Hill ; and I knew him to be the 
same that was in the fight." Reuben Kemp.' 

" ' Sworn to before me, John Parish, Justice of the Peace.' 

"Pray, where was Captain Dearborn, that he could neither 
see this gallant officer nor hear his orders to Dearborn's own 
regiment ? 

" To the host of unanswerable witnesses, already adduced, we 
add the following : 

" ' Isaac Bassett of Killingly, in the county of Windham, 



372 Life of Isi'ael Piitnain. 

and State of Connecticut, deposeth, that he was a private sol- 
dier in General Putnam's regiment, in 1775. The day previous 
to the battle of Bunker Hill a detachment had been made from 
that regiment, and, under the command of Captain Knowlton, 
composed part of the force that first occupied Breed's Hill. On 
the morning of the 17th of June, another detachment from the 
same regiment, under the command of Ensign Sprague, marched 
from Cambridge, either to relieve or reinforce the party which 
went on the hill over night. To this last detachment the depo- 
nent belonged, and arrived on the hill at the redoubt and breast- 
work, just as the action commenced. Here he saw General Put- 
nam with his sword drawn, encouraging and animating the troops. 
One of the company, Benjamin Grosvenor by name, was wounded 
in the shoulder ; and the deponent's father, who was also a soldier 
in the same regiment, was leading him from the field of action. 
General Putnam stopped him, and, pricking him with his sword, 
told him the wounded man could walk off himself, and not a sol- 
dier should leave the ground. This happened at the breastwork 
leading from the redoubt, where our party took post. I saw Gen- 
eral Putnam in the hottest of the fight, calling on the men to 
stand their ground ; and I am sure he was at this post when the 
enemy scaled the walls of the redoubt. I did not myself hear 
the order given, but it was often said by the soldiers of our regi- 
ment, that General Putnam ordered them " not to fire on the en- 
emy till they should see the color of their eyes, and then for 
every man to make sure of his mark." Isaac Bassett.' 

" ' Sworn to before me, James Danielson, Justice of the Peace.' 

" These orders were precisely in the character of the file-de- 
vouring Putnam, of whose desperate valor and almost more than 
human courage so many anecdotes have been for half a century 
told. Here also is another positive eye-witness, who knew Put- 
nam and could not be mistaken. 

" We have also a deposition of another of Dearborn's com- 
rades in Stark's regiment, who volunteered his testimony. Eben- 
ezer Bean of Conway, New Hampshire, says, — 

*' ' The following are the most prominent facts which came un- 



Appendix. 373 

der my observation, at the battle of Bunker Hill, relative to the 

conduct of General Putnam in that action. I was a private in 

Captain Kinsman's company, in Colonel Stark's regiment. A 

detachment under Captain Kinsman was ordered on to the hill, 

in the fore part of the day. We arrived at the redoubt about 

12 o'clock, and continued there through the action. The rest 

of Colonel Stark's regiment arrived on the hill just before the 

action commenced. When we arrived at the redoubt, General 

Putnam was there, and very active ; he was urging the men on, 

giving orders, riding from one end of the line to the other, as 

far as I could observe, and continued active through the action, 

and in my opinion fought with great bravery. 

" * Ebenezer Bean. 
" ' Conway, N. H., May 29th, 1818.' 

" Here is another contradiction of General Dearborn, by his 
own soldiers. This disproves two assertions : ' that Putnam re- 
mained inactive during the battle,' and. that 'no officer was 
mounted on that day.' 

" Amos Barnes, of the same town, swears that he was in Cap- 
tain Abbott's company, in Stark's regiment * When we arrived 
at Charlestown Neck, we passed Gerrish's regiment. Colonel 
Stark marched in front, over the neck, and I was the third man 
from him. Captain Abbott marched next to Colonel Stark, and 
no other officer. \This, though unimportant, contradicts General 
Dearborn, who says he inarched in front with Stark. One of the 
witnesses must be mistaken. We may, hereafter, learn which, but 
it serves to show the confusion of the accounts of such battles I] When 
we got on to the top of the hill, I saw one or two field-pieces which 
had ceased firing. Putnam was on his horse near them, and 
when we passed him he urged Colonel Stark to urge on his men 
as fast as possible. [Dearborn says they were moving at a very 
moderate pace, which did not suit the impatient temper of Put- 
nam. These pieces were on Breed's Hill, as will appear by 
future evidence, particularly that of the Hon. James Winthrop.] 
We marched down the hill, by the redoubt, and after firing fif- 
teen or twenty minutes, as nearly as I can recollect, at this dis- 



374 Life of Israel Putnam. 

tance of time, Major M'Cleary ordered us to retreat, I con- 
tinued in service till 1777 ; and in 1778 entered again and con- 
tinued till 1780, and never in my life heard a word said against 
the military character of General Putnam, till I saw General 
Dearborn's statement. Amos Barnes. 

" ' Conway, N. H.' 

" Thus it seems that Colonel Stark's or Dearborn's own sol- 
diers do not make so much of their exertions as their officers ; 
and that this jealousy of Putnam's fame did not pervade the 
ranks so freely as in other places, in the New Hampshire line. 
But private soldiers are not so apt to feel humiliations and dis- 
appointments. They expect only to bleed and suffer for their 
country. 

" We have another piece of direct testimony from an eye-wit- 
ness, Benjamin Putnam, Esq., of Dixmont, Maine, and post- 
master in that place, going to show the great energy of Putnam 
on the day of Bunker Hill ; but as he only saw him ' pushing on 
the men with great activity ' (to use his own words), ' and then 
galloping on towards Breed's Hill, the scene of action, from Bun- 
ker Hill,' we shall not insert it at large, though it is ready for 
the inspection of the curious." 

BRIEF EXTRACTS FROM OTHER ARTICLES OF MR. LOWELL. 

" It is said by President Adams that there could be no com- 
mander, because there was no general or national authority. 
But is this conclusive ? or was it the fact ? Were not the troops 
of Connecticut and New Hampshire acting as allies of Massa- 
chusetts, which was then engaged in a war de facto 1 And when 
allied armies are assembled, is there not generally a commander- 
in-chief ? And if detachments are va^idi^ partly from each, do not 
the officers retain their ranks, and command inferior officers of 
allied troops ? Did not General Ward assume the command of all 
the troops at Cambridge ? Dearborn states this fact ; and it 
was by the orders of a Massachusetts General, that Colonel 
Stark of New Hampshire appeared on Bunker Hill. If Putnam, 
then, was in the battle at all, except as a volunteer, he must have 
had the command. That he had so is proved by his own history 



Appendix. 375 

of the battle, as detailed by his son. General Putnam is cer- 
tainly as good and credible a witness, at the least, as any one 
who has been cited. He is not to be viewed as an accused per- 
son defending himself ; for it is admitted, even by his mortal 
enemy (and a man cannot have a more bitter one) General Dear- 
born, that he never was accused, and he thinks it unaccountable 
that he escaped. So far from being accused, he was instantly 
promoted for his conduct in that battle 

" We have already stated that all the historians of our war 
have done ample justice to the valor and enterprise of this vet- 
eran ; nor have our poets forgotten him. What General Dear- 
born could mean by his 'ephemeral popularity having faded 
away,' we are ignorant. He retained that popularity to the hour 
of this atrocious calumny ; and he will retain it long after the 
name of Dearborn and all his services and various fortunes shall 
have been forgotten. 

" We have heard two officers of high rank irl the army, who en- 
joyed the confidence of Washington, near his person or under 
his eye, declare since this charge, that they never heard a word 
nor an insinuation against the reputation of Putnam, till General 
Dearborn's ' account of the battle.' " 



F. 

EXTRACTS FROM ARTICLE IN THE "NORTH AMERICAN 
REVIEW," JULY, 1818. 

Reference has already been made to this article on pp. 263- 
264. But for the purpose of showing more clearly its spirit and 
aim, we here give several extracts from it. We do this, not only 
for the marked ability displayed, but because one would not be 
likely to know the real purpose of the article from references 
often made to it at the present day. We have in Chapter XI. 
quoted the sentence in which the writer says, " Properly and 
strictly speaking, there was no commander-in-chief in the battle." 



3/6 Life of IsTad Putnam. 

As has been fully explained in Chapter V., that may be a legal 
truth, a rhetorical truth, but is not a historical truth. It stisform 
dhovefact. But letting this pass, it will be seen that the article 
is a stout defence of Putnam against his slanderers. The very 
title plainly indicates the intent of the writer. It is the "Bat- 
tle of Bunker Hill, — General Putnam." The writer, though not 
named in the " Review," was undoubtedly Daniel Webster. He 
was at that time thirty-six years old, and two years before had 
removed from Portsmouth to Boston. As a laAvyer, it was but 
natural enough that he should look at the legal aspects of this 
"question of command." But it is quite apparent that the men 
of 1775 who fought the battle took a practical and, common- 
sense view of the matter, and left legal technicalities to take care 
of themselves. 

" Were it not for the extremely unpleasant nature of the dis- 
cussion to which the first of the pamphlets [General Dearborn's] 
has given rise, we should not regret the occasion of recurring to 
that distinguished and ever memorable opening of the revolu- 
tionary contest. No national drama was ever developed in a 
more interesting and splendid first scene. The incidents and 
the result of the battle itself were most important, and indeed 
most wonderful. As a mere battle, few surpass it in whatever 
interests and engages the attention. It was fought on a conspicu- 
ous eminence, in the immediate neighborhood of a populous 
city, and consequently in the view of thousands of spectators. 
The attacking army moved over a sheet of water to the assault. 
The operations and movements were of course all visible and all 
distinct. Those who looked on from the houses and heights of 
Boston had a fuller view of every important operation and event 
than can ordinarily be had of any battle, or than can possibly be 
had of such as are fought on a more extended ground, or by de- 
tachments of troops, acting in different places and at different 
times, and in some measure independently of each other. When 
the British columns were advancing to attack, the flames of 
Charlestown (fired as is generally supposed by a shell) began to 
ascend. The spectators, far outnumbering both armies, thronged 



Appendix. ^yy 

and crowded on every height and every point v,rhich afforded a 
view of the scene, themselves constituted a very important part 
of it. The troops of the two armies seemed like so many com- 
batants in an amphitheatre. The manner in which they should 
acquit themselves was to be judged of, not as in other cases of 
military engagements, by reports and future history, but by a 
vast and anxious assembly already on the spot, and waiting with 
unspeakable concern and emotion the progress of the day. In 
other battles the recollection of wives and children has been used 
as an excitement to animate the warrior's breast and nerve his 
arm. Here was not a mere recollection, but an actual presence of 
them, and other dear connections, hanging on the skirts of the 
battle, anxious and agitated, feeling almost as if wounded them- 
selves by every blow of the enemy, and putting forth, as it were, 
their own strength and all the energy of their own throbbing bo- 
soms, into every gallant effort of their warring friends. 

" But there was a more comprehensive and vastly more impor- 
tant view of that day's contest than has been mentioned, a view 
indeed which ordinary eyes, bent intently on what was immedi- 
ately before them, did not embrace, but which was perceived in 
its full extent and expansion by minds of a higher order. Those 
men who were at the head of the colonial councils, who had been 
engaged for years in the previous stages of the quarrel with Eng- 
land, and who had been accustomed to look forward to the future, 
were well apprised of the magnitude of the events likely to hang 
on the business of that day. They saw in it, not only a battle, 
but the beginning of a civil war, of unmeasured extent, and of un- 
cfertain issue. All America and all England were likely to be 
deeply concerned in the consequences. The individuals them- 
selves who knew full well what agency they had had in bringing 
affairs to this crisis, had need of all their courage, — not that dis- 
regard of personal safety in which the vulgar suppose true 
courage to consist, but that high and fixed moral sentiment, that 
steady and decided purpose, which enables men to pursue a dis- 
tant end, with a full view of the difficulties and dangers before 
them, and with a conviction that before they arrive at the pro- 
posed end, should they ever reach it, they must pass through evil 



378 Life of Israel Putnam. 

report as well as good report, and be liable to obloquy, as well 

as defeat 

*' Nearly half a century has elapsed from the commencement 
of the Revolution, and in this flight of years, a great majority of 
those who acted prominent parts in it have been carried to the 
tomb. A small number survive, yet enjoying the fruit of their 
services, and rejoicing in the prosperity of their country. We 
cannot conceive what motives should induce any one of those 
who are still living to venture rashly in an attack on the fame of 
the dead. How long can he who is the youngest of the survi- 
vors expect to live to vindicate his own claims to his country's 
gratitude ? And which of them can expect that those who come 
after him, and are of another generation, shall pay a more ten- 
der and sacred regard to his fame than he may have been 
found to manifest to the fame of one of his own associates and 
companions in arms ? The last man who should bring forward, 
at this day, an accusation against one who has long been dead, 
and who died in the full possession of his country's regard and 
gratitude for his services in our Revolution, is he who has him- 
self claims on that regard and gratitude for similar services. 
Even the common feelings of self-interest would seem sufficient 
to repress such an undertaking by such a hand. What is the 
value of revolutionary merit, if, forty years after the actions on 
which it rests were performed, and twenty years after he who 
performed them has gone to his grave, this merit may be denied 
in terms of bold and unqualified assertion, and the country in- 
formed that imbecility, cowardice, want of patriotism and neglect 
of duty, were the true characteristics of those to whom it has 
uniformly ascribed a generous devotion to the public interest, 
inflexible virtue and dauntless courage ? And especially what is 
to be the value of this merit, if such attacks are to be made upon 
it, not by the temerity of the striplings of the rising generation, 
but by one who was an associate and fellow-laborer ? There are 
occasions, it is true, in which great sacrifices must be made to 
the truth of history, and to a desire of disabusing mankind of 
their prejudices and false opinions. But such necessity, we have 
flattered ourselves, has not existed in relation to the public men 



Appendix. 379 

of the United States. We cannot persuade ourselves that it ex- 
isted in the case of General Putnam, and we cannot, therefore, 
but feel the deepest regret for the occasion that has produced 
these remarks 

" A very ordinary degree of candor would induce the belief, 
that if there had been grounds of complaint against any officer, 
at that time, not of a shadowy and unsubstantial nature, they 
would have been attended to and investigated. That was cer- 
tainly a jealous period. Every officer was watched, because it 
was the beginning of a civil war, and dangers were to be appre- 
hended not only from cowardice but from defection. If those 
who knew General Putnam's behavior at that time found no 
fault with it, the presumption is that no fault could be found 
with it. And those whose lips were silent then, when well- 
founded complaints would have been a duty, must, long after- 
wards and after the death of the party, be heard not without 
much abatement and allowance 

"Taking the evidence together, we apprehend the following 
to be a true general account of General Putnam's conduct on 
this occasion : He came over from Cambridge with a party of 
the Connecticut troops, the night before the battle, and directed 
and assisted in throwing up the redoubt. He was on the field 
of battle at or about the time the action commenced at the rail 
fence. At some period, during the battle, he probably went back 
to bring up the residue of his own regiment. [The writer is evi- 
dently mistaken in this suggestion. There appears no evidence 
that General Putnam ever tried to move his regiment into that 
battle, except the one hundred and twenty men detailed the night 
before. Pie sent his son, Captain Israel Putnam, just before the 
battle, for the rest of Chester's company, and perhaps Coit's, but 
it is sufficient proof that this call did not apply to the eight hun- 
dred men or more that still remained of his regiment, at Inman's 
farm, chat we have no account of their movement that day. Put- 
nam in this paid respect to Ward's orders.] He may possibly 
have gone back more than once for this purpose. He was en- 
couraging the troops, giving command, passing along the lines, 
and partaking of all the danger of the occasion, in the heat of 



380 Life of Israel Putnam. 

the engagement at the rail fence. When the British made the 
last attack, which was confined principally to the redoubt, he 
might have been gone back to bring up the other troops. If so, 
this would explain a fact, which has been asserted, that Colonel 
Prescott on his retreat met General Putnam. He was not in the 
redoubt at any time during the battle. That post was Prescott's. 
His command and operations were confined to the troops which 
lined the rail fence, and perhaps the breastwork. It should be 
understood that the redoubt and breastwork were on a line. But 
the rail fence was not on a line with these, but considerably in 
the rear, and much nearer Bunker Hill. If General Putnam had 
been at the rail fence itself when Colonel Prescott retreated, the 
latter might be said to have met with, or, in more correct terms, 
to have passed, the former. The contiguity of the rail fence to 
Bunker Hill may explain the passing, even perhaps more than 
once, of General Putnam from the one to the other. It has lit- 
tle tendency to prove the absence of General Putnam from the 
field at the time of the battle, that troops passed him as they 
went to Breed's Hill or as they returned from it. They went be- 
fore the battle and returned afterwards ; and an officer on horse- 
back certainly is able to move with more velocity than a corps 
of infantry. It was an open field, not a strait and narrow path, 
that led to the redoubt, the breastwork and the rail fence. Offi- 
cers no doubt traversed the field, sometimes meeting troops, 
sometimes passing them in various directions, as their duty re- 
quired. No part of the fight was hotter or more fatal than at 

that part of the line occupied by Knowlton's company 

In order to understand the operations of the day, it should be 
borne in mind that the object of the British was to dislodge the 
troops from the redoubt The first operation of the Brit- 
ish infantry was a movement on the flank ; and it was to prevent 
the success of this movement that the rail fence was thrown up. 
Being repulsed in this attempt the British, on the arrival of the 
reinforcement, changed their mode of operation and proceeded to 

a direct assault of the fort itself, in which they succeeded 

*' The fact is, that the troops at the rail fence, a part of which 
belonged to Putnam's regiment and were more immediately un- 



Appendix. 381 

der his command, never were repulsed and did not retreat, till the 
fort itself, the whole original object of the battle, was abandoned. 
The deficiency of force was in the redoubt, and if Putnam had been 
able to have reinforced Prescott there, it would have been in the high- 
est degree advantageous. [We desire to call special attention to 
the sentence just copied. The writer of the article, though he has 
before said that " strictly speaking there was no commander-in- 
chief," yet in this very sentence treats Putnam as chief comman- 
der. What had Putnam to do with reinforcing Prescott, except 
as having the general oversight and command ? Why should not 
Prescott, through his subordinate officers, reinforce himself.] . . . 
"General Putnam was an uneducated man. In the science 
of his profession he could not, of course, be greatly accomplished. 
He made his way by the force and enterprise of his character, 
and his devotion to the public interest. He was suited to the 
times, and the times were suited to him. Habituated from early 
life to an acquaintance with the militia, trained in the school of 
Indian and colonial warfare, of integrity above suspicion, and 
of courage not to be doubted, much esteemed by the people of 
Connecticut, and a warm friend to the Revolution, it could hardly 
be otherwise than that he should possess that weight and con- 
sideration which is called an unaccountable popularity." 



NOTE. 



In closing, we desire to emphasize a distinction which has 
been several times made in this volume, between the civil and 
the military capacity of General Artemas Ward. In the sum 
total of his character, he is not by any means to be spoken of 
contemptuously or even lightly. He was in public affairs a man 
of high standing and large serv^ice. S. A. Drake, Esq., in his 
" Historic Fields and Mansions of Middlesex," speaks in terms of 
high praise of his firmness and courage, as a Judge in Worces- 
ter, in the time of Shay's rebellion. As head of the American 



382 Life of Israel Putnam. 

army at Cambridge, he was suffering under a painful disease, 
which prevented his riding a horse, and doubtless took away 
from his natural courage and force. We have only desired to 
show, whatever may have been the excuses for his slowness and 
timidity, that he was a very poor head commander in that sum- 
mer of 1775. 

Mr. Drake, in the work above referred to, on p. 260, gives the 
following anecdote of what happened years afterwards : 

" It is well known that Washington spoke of the resignation 
of General Ward, after the evacuation of Boston, in a manner 
approaching contempt. His observations, then confidentially 
made, about some of the other Generals, were not calculated to 
flatter their amour propre or that of their descendants. It is said 
that General Ward, learning long afterwards the remark that had 
been applied to him, accompanied by a friend, waited on his old 
chief at New York, and asked him if it was true that he had 
used such language. The President replied that he did not 
know, but that he kept copies of all his letters, and would take 
an opportunity of examining them. Accordingly at the next ses- 
sion of Congress (of which General Ward was a member) he 
again called with his friend, and was informed by the President 
that he had really written as alleged. Ward then said, ''Sir, you 
are no gentleman^ and turning on his heel, quitted the room." 



INDEX.' 



Brewer, Jonathan, 114. 

Brickett, James, 115, 237, 240. 

Bridge, Ebenezer, 113, 149, 237, 240. 

Brinley, George, 87. 

Brooklyn, Ct., 39. 

Brooks, Eleazer, 115. 

Brooks, John, 116, 155, 175. 

Brown, Benjamin, 40. 

Brown, Peter, 228. 

Bruce, Major, 355. 

Bunker Hill Art, three pictures, 216- 

227. 
Bunker Hill Association, action of, 

336- 
Burr, Aaron, 304, 309. 
Burr, Thaddeus, 200. 
Bushnell, Dr., 343. 
Butler, Major, 355. 



Abercrombie, Gen., 56, 57, 62, 355. 
Adams, John, 87, 88, 89, 95, 138, 175, 

242, 245, 264, 270. 
Adams, Samuel, 112, 252, 253, 254. 
Agassiz, Prof., 80. 
Allen, Ethan, 137. 
AIner, James, 303. 
Amherst, Gen., 166, 346. 
Andrew, Daniel, 24. 
Andros, Edmund, 36, 70. 
Army at Cambridge, constitution of, 

87-104. 
Avery, Ephraim, 47. 

B. 

Babcock, Henry, 291. 

Bailey, John, 1 13. 

Bancroft, George, 4, 50, 51, 52, 77, 78, 

8r, 86, 122, 124, 125, 173, 269, 273, 

306, 307. 
Barker, Captain, 226. 
Barnard, Henry, 343. 
Beard, Edwin S., 4. 
Belcher, Jonathan, 37, 46. 
Belknap, Jeremy, iii, 121. 
Bircham, Edward, 15. 
Blackwell, John, 35, 36, 37, 39, 46. 
Braddock, Gen., 51, 56. 
Brewer, David, 92, 114, 162, 194, 206. 

* This is mainly an index of names ; but, from the very character of the work, cer- 
tain names recur so frequently, that we have not been careful to repeat them in every instance. 
The index will be more useful for finding a large number of names not of so frequent recur- 
rence. 



Chandler, John, 42. 

Charles H., 36. 

Chastellux, 236. 

Chester, John, 116, 119, 135, 143, 144, 

176, 179. 
Cheever, Ezekiel, 24. 
Church, Benjamin, 131,285, 286. 
Church, Thomas, 1 14. 
Clarke, John, 200, 201, 232, 233, 234, 

241, 355- 



384 



Life of Israel Putnam, 



Clark, James, ii6. 
Cleaveland, Rev., 287. 
Cleaveland, Aaron, 78, 79. 
Clinton, Henry, 193, 292, 309, 314, 

355- 
Cockings, George, 233. 
Cochran, John, 67. 
Coit, Captain, 143, 144. 
Colonels in army of 1775, ^i^t o^> ^H> 

US- 
Committee of Safety, 131. 
Conant, S. S., 222. 
Cotton, Theophilus, 114. 
Council of War, loi. 
Craft, Ebenezer, 42. 
Cromwell, 35. 

D. 

Daland, Katherine, 26. 

Danielson, Timothy, 114. 

Dana, Joseph, 42. 

Dana, Judah, 322. 

Dawson, Henry B., 4, 128, l8l» 188, 

191, 192, 228, 229, 230, 234. 
Deane, Silas, 120, 247, 254. 
Dean, John Ward, 4. 
Dearborn, Henry, 4, 116, 122, 177, 

178, 179, 182, 189, 195, 227, 255, 

256, 257, 270, 352. 
De Kalb, 236. 

Deming, Henry C, 75, 77, 343, 350. 
Devens, Richard, 131. 
Devens, Charles, 170, 171. 
Devotion, Ebenezer, 42. 
Dieskau, Baron, 54, 55, 347. 
Donnell, James, 173. 
Doolittle, Col., 149, 215. 
Dow, Reuben, 147. 
Drake, Samuel A., 151, 218, 233, 241, 

274. 
Duke de Lauzun, 236. 
Durkee, Major, 71, 142. 
Dwight, Timothy, 330. 



E. 

Eaton, William, anecdote of, 153. 
Ellis, George E., 4, 151, 181, 182, 196, 

222. 
Elliott, Andrew, 232. 
Eustis, William, 265, 266, 267. 
Everett, Edward, 345. 

F. 

Fellows, John, 113, 114. 

Fitch, Major, 35, 36. 

Fitch, Gov., of Conn., 70. 

Folsom, Nathaniel, 148. 

Forces sent to the battle, 141-150. 

Fort Edward, 54. 

Franklin, Benjamin, 71. 

Frothingham, Richard, 3, 88, 100, 
118, 119, 127, 132, 134, 138, 140, 
141, 149, 166, 171, 176, 187, 196, 
201, 202, 203, 204, 209, 210, 217, 
225 ; publishes the " Siege of Eos- 
ton," 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 286. 

Frye, Joseph, 113. 

Frye, James, 92, 113, 149. 

G. 

Gage, Thomas, 192, 200, 229, 246, 
314, 340, 353-355- 

Gardner, Mrs. Deborah, 82. 

Gardner, Thomas, 114, 131, 149, 206, 
231. 

Gates, Horatio, 236, 283, 294, 346. 

Gerrish, Samuel, 1 14, 149, 195. 

Gerry, Elbridge, 252. 

George II., 37. 

Generals at Cambridge, list of, 91, 
92 ; sketches of, 105-109. 

Generals, Major, first chosen by Con- 
tinental Congress, sketch of, iii- 

"3- 

Gilpin, John, 140. 
Glover, John, 114, 115. 



Index. 



38s 



Greene, Nathaniel, 87, 88, 91, 92, loi, 

107, no. III, 125, 200, 236, 283, 

285, 289, 306, 307. 
Greaton, John, 115. 
Green, Jacob, 200. 
Green, Rev., 26. 
Gridley, Richard, 92, 114, 115, 127, 

138, 139, 149, 182, 240. 
Griffin, Col, 311. 
Grosvenor, L., 4, 28, 31, 40, 52, 59, 

68, 320, 325. 
Grosvenor, Thomas, 116, 143, 144. 
Grosvenor, L. P., 343. 

H. 

Hale, Nathan, 311, 313. 

Hall, Samuel and Ebenezer, 246. 

Hancock, John, 131, 302. 

Haskell, Caleb, diary of, 163, 205, 

213, 214, 287, 288, 289. 
Haskell, A. W., 213. 
Hayward, E. P., 4, 80. 
Hazen, Henry A., 4. 
Heath, William, 88, 92, 107, no, 

113, 125, 131, 155, 157, 244, 283, 

294. 
Hendrick, Chief of Mohawks, 53, 55. 
Herrick, Joseph, 25. 
Hide, Ephraim, 42, 
Higginson, Francis, 17. 
Higginson, John, 18. 
Hill, Jeremiah, 248. 
Hill, George Canning, 331. 
Hitchcock, Daniel, 114, 115. 
Hollister, his History of Conn., 57, 

58, 62, 69, 80, 144. 
Holyoke, Edward, 17. 
Holyoke, Ann, 21. 
Howe, Richard, 307, 309, 311. 
Howe, William, 188, 189, 190, 197, 

292, 309, 354, 355- 
Howe, Mrs., 305. 
Hubbard, John, 48. 

25 



Huldeman, 68. 

Humphreys, David, 4, 29, 53, 60, 6r, 

73,84,303, 305,311,317,328. 
Huntington, Enoch, 42. 
Hunt, Daniel, 49. 

I. 

Ingersoll, Deacon, 27. 

Ingersoll, Jared, 71, 72, 142. 
Ingersoll, Charles R., 84, 85. 
Inman House, 211, 212. 
Irving, Washington, 124, 269, 272. 

J. 

James II., 36, 70. 

Johnson, Sir William, 53, 54. 

K. 

Killed and wounded on American 

side, 204-206. 
Kingswood, 37. 
Knowlton, Thomas, 116, 191, 237, 

243,3"- 



Lafayette, 236, 326. 

Langdon, Samuel, 174. 

Lamed, Ellen, 4, 33, 43-46. 

Layton, Thomas, 15. 

Learned, Ebenezer, 92, 1 14, 

Leonard, Rev., 288, 300. 

Leonidas, 344. 

Lee, Charles, 109, in, 112, 120, 121, 
281, 284. 

List of officers appointed by Conti- 
nental Congress, June, 1775, 283. 

Little, Moses, 115, 149, 162; time of 
the arrival of his regiment at Bun- 
ker Hill, 163, 194, 206, 215, 289. 

Lincoln, Benjamin, 114, 115, 236. 

Livingstone, William, 304. 

Lord Mayor, 247. 

Loudoun, Earl of, 56, 62. 

Lossing, Benson J., 314. 



386 



Life of Israel Puttiam. 



Lowell, John. 133, 225, 258, 259, 260, 

261, 262, 263, 367. 
Luther, Martin, 323. 
Lyman, Phinehas, 53, 64, 68. 

M. 

Macdonald, 344. 
Main, Elias H., 267. 
Marcy, John, 145. 
Marsden, Adjutant, 173. 
McClary, Andrew, 178, 206, 231. 
McFingal, 121. 
Mercer, Hugh, 236. 
Mines, John F., 308. 
Mitchell, Major, 355. 
Moncrief, Major, 98. 
Moncrieffe, Miss, 303. 
Montgomery, Richard, 236, 283. 
Monroe, Pres., 263. 
Montcalm, Gen., 57. 
Moore, Major, 162, 194, 231. 
Morgan, Daniel, 236. 
Mortlake, in Surrey, Eng., 36. 
Mortlake Manor, 36, 39, 40, 80. 
Mortlake Parish, 40, 46, 47, 48. 
Moylan, Stephen, 297. 
Murray, Robert, Mrs., 309, 310. 

N. 
Napoleon, 133, 344. 
Nesbit, Lieut.-Col., 355. 
New Pilgrim's Progress, 332. 
Ney, Marshal, 133. 
Nixon, John, 92, 93, 114, 162, 194, 

206. 
Norris, Edward, 32. 

o. 

Orders given to Prescott, 136-138. 
Orne, Azor, 114, 115, 131. 



Paine, Joshua, 42. 

Palmer, Joseph, 114, 115, 131, 168. 



Palmer, Edmund, 313. 

Parker, Francis J., 4, 97, loO. 

Parker, Moses, 231. 

Parris, Rev., 19. 

Parsons, Samuel H., 143. 

Patterson, Lieut.-Col., 304. 

Patterson, John, 103, 114, 115, 148. 

Peabody, Stephen, 145. 

Pepperell, William, 346. 

Percy, Lord, 73. 

Peters, Hugh, 18. 

Pigeon, J., 131. 

Pigot, Gen., 188, 190, 354, 355. 

Pitt, William, 62. 

Pitcairne, Major, 355. 

Pomeroy, Seth, 106, in, 113, 123, 
126, 135, 248, 255, 283. 

Pomfret, town of, 32, 39, 40, 41, 42. 

Poor, Enoch, 87, 88, 113. 

Pope, Joseph, 30, 38. 

Pope, Hannah, 30, 66. 

Population of New England, 1754, 
57. 

Porter, Israel, 19. 

Porter, Elizabeth, 19. 

Prescot, Richard, 1 10, 250. 

Prescott, Judge, 222, 223. 

Prescott, Oliver, 158. 

Prescott, William, 92, 93, 94, 97, 114, 
116, 117, 123, 127, 128, 129, 132, 
133. 134. 13s. 136, 137. 147. 148, 
149, 15s. 156, 157. 160, 174, 175, 
180, 189, 193, 197, 198, 199, 202, 
208, 210, 222, 234; his letter to 
John Adams, 237-243, 250, 255, 

272,307. 313. 332,333- 
Prince, Dr., 227. 
Pulaski, 236. 

Putnam, Edward, 17, 18, 19. 
Putnam, David, 31. 
Putnam, Daniel, 4, 20, 49, 83, 103, 

141, 168, 171, 211, 263, 279, 284, 

350, 352. 353- 
Putnam, Joseph, 17, 19, 20, 25. 



Index. 



387 



Putnam, Israel, 3, 11, 12, 19, 20, 28; 
his marriage, 30, 34 ; removes to 
Pomfret, Ct., 34, 38 ; and the wolf, 
43, 46 ; his children, 48, 49 ; French 
War, 50-63 ; Captain, 53 ; first bat- 
tle, 55 ; a ranger, 58 ; escape down 
the rapids, 60 ; chosen Major, 62 ; 
prisoner, 63 ; Lieut.-Col., 64 ; re- 
turns home, 66 ; death of his wife, 
66 ; joins the church, 66 ; son of 
liberty, 71 ; alarm from Boston, 78; 
selectman, 80 ; moderator in town- 
meeting, 81 ; ride to Cambridge, 
83, 84 ; Brig. -Gen., 91 ; commander 
at battle of Chelsea, 94-97 ; ex- 
change of prisoners, 98, 99 ; mem- 
ber of council of war, loi, 102; Con- 
tinental Major-Gen., iii; leading 
man in the army at Cambridge, 118- 
122, 123 ; council of war, June i6th, 
132, 133, 134, 136 ; question of com- 
mand, 136-138 ; night council, 138- 
140 ; his desire to fortify Bunker 
Hill, 1 51-159; anecdote of, 166; 
goes to Cambridge on the morning 
of June 17th, 174 ; his immense ac- 
tivities, 194 ; takes command of the 
retreating forces, 201 ; leads the 
army off the field and fortifies Pros- 
pect Hill, 207-215; notices of him 
as commander, 228-280 ; promoted 
over eight Generals of higher rank, 
278 ; receives his commission as 
Major-Gen., 282, 283 ; takes pos- 
session of Lechmere's Point, 291 ; 
council of war, 294; in command 
of four thousand men to attack the 
British camps, 296; takes posses- 
sion of Boston, 300 ; placed in com- 
mand at New York, 301 ; letter to 
Continental Congress, 302 ; letter 
to Miss Moncrieffe, 304 ; story of 
Mrs. Howe, 305 ; rescue of Put- 
nam's division at New York, 308- 



310 ; in command at Philadelphia, 
311 ; headquarters at Peekskill, 313; 
headquarters at Reading, 315; ride 
down the stone steps, 315, 316; 
stricken with paralysis, 317; re- 
turns to Pomfret, 318 ; receives let- 
ter from Washington, 320; descrip- 
tion of, 320, 322; his home life, 
323 ; his descendants, 324, 325 ; his 
death, burial, and tomb, 327-331. 

Q. 

Quincy, Morton, 131. 

R. 
Rangers, band of, 58. 
Reed, James, N. H., 79, 113, 115, 

145, 146, 147, 165, 189, 243. 
Reed, James, Mass., 92, 114, 115. 
Reid, George, 116. 
Rice, Charles B., 3, 18, 25, 26, 30. 
Rivington, 314. 
Robertson, Gen., 314, 
Robinson, Col., 238. 
Rochambeau, 236. 
Rogers, Major, 58. 



Salem Village, now Danvers, 3, 16, 
24, 25, 27, 30, 39, 42, 48, 66. 

Sabin, Abishai, 42. 

Scammans, James, 149, 172, 249. 

Schuyler, Peter, 49, 63, 305. 

Schuyler, Philip, iii, 281, 283. 

Sergeant Paul Dudley, 103, 148. 

Shepherd, C, 219. 

Sherburne, Major, 302. 

Sheriff, Col., 73. 

Sherman, Gen., 315, 334, 336. 

Short, Major, 355. 

" Siege of Boston," 3. 

Silliman, Benjamin, 4, 135, 223, 224, 
362. 

Skelton, Samuel, 17, 18. 



388 



Life of Israel Pitt nam. 



Skene, Gov., 304. 

Small, Major, 68, 73, 77, 225, 226, 

227, 351. 
Smelt, Major, 355. 
Sophia, Princess, 37. 
Sparks, Jared, 89, 307, 326. 
Spencer, Joseph, 91, 106, no, in, 

113, 125, 132, 136, 219, 283, 293, 

294. 
Spendlove, Major, 355. 
Stark, John, 88, 91, 92, 93, 113, 115, 

126, 145, 146, 147, 160, 164, 178, 

189, 241, 243, 255, 340. 
Sterling, Lord, 297, 298, 299. 
Stiles, David, 19. 
Stiles, Ezra, 108, 234, 235, 236. 
Storrs, Ephraim, 160. 
Stuart, John, 226. 
Sumner, Joseph, 42. 
Sullivan, John, 283, 294. 
Swett, Samuel, 4, 99, 119, 179, 208, 

263. 

T. 

Thomas, John, 88, 91, 106, 107, no, 

125, 132, 236, 283, 293. 
Treat, Major, 62. 
Trevitt, Captain, 182. 
Trumbull, Gov. Jonathan, no, 219, 

247, 288. 
Trumbull, John, 121. 
Trumbull, Col. John, 135, 219, 220, 

221, 222, 223, 350, 352, 353. 
Trumbull, David, 290. 
Trumbull, J. Hammond, 4, 84. 
Trumbull Papers, 290. 
Tryon, William, 309, 314, 316. 
Tyler, Daniel P., 4, 264, 265, 267, 268. 
Tyler, Daniel, 48. 
Tweed, Mr., 315. 

u. 

Upham, Charles W., 3, 13, 15, 18, 
20, 24, 30, 32. 



V. 
Vamum, James M , 114. 115. 
Veren, Nathaniel, 17, 21. 
Veren, Widow, 19. 
Viomenil, 236. 

w. 

Wadsworth, Col., 317. 

Waller, Adjutant, 162. 

Waldo, Dr. A., 329. 

Ward, Artemas, 87, 89, 91, 92, 95, 
96, 102, 104, 105, 109, III, 113, 
118, 126, 127, 128, 129, 136, 137, 
142, 149, 154, 166, 173, 174, 175, 
180, 181, 193, 209, 244, 245, 255, 
281, 283, 293, 294. 

Ward, Joseph, 142. 

Ward, Jonathan, 113. 

Warren, Joseph, 81, 82, 91, 92, 95, 
96, 98, 107, 131, 137 ; offered the 
command at Bunker Hill, 170-172, 
182, 223, 225, 233, 248, 335, 351. 

Warren, James, 112. 

Washington, George, 56, 112, 120, 
215, 220, 281, 282, 283, 286, 293, 
294.312, 351. 

Watson, Abraham, 131. 

Webb, Samuel B., 116, 120. 

Webster, Daniel, 263, 264, 326, 376. 

Weld, Ezra, 42. 

Wells, William V., 112. 

West, Benjamin, 221. 

Whitney, Josiah, 48, (>■], 329. 

Whitcomb, Asa, 92, 113, 206. 

Whitcomb, John, 108, 113, 115, 248, 
249. 

White, Benjamin, 131, 135. 

Whiting, Captain, 322. 

Wheildon, W. W., 4, 216, 275. 

Wilkinson, James, 193. 

Wilkinson, J., 219, 335. 

Windham County, history of, 4, 33, 35. 

Winslow, John, 57. 

Winsor, Justin, 4. 



Index. 



389 



Williams, Ephraim, 54, 55; founder 
of Williams College, 55, 56. 

Williams, Roger, 18. 

Williams, Major, 355. 

Wilkins, Bray, 19. 

Wiltshire, 37. 

Wolfe, Gen., 64, 346. 

Woodbridge, Benjamin R., 114, 149, 
162, 194. 



Woods, Major, 161, 238. 
Woodstock, town of, 32, 35. 
Wooster, David, 200, 236, 283. 
Wyman, Isaac, 146, 160, 164. 



Y. 



Young, Dr., 118. 



Franklin Press: Rand, Avery, &> Co., Boston. 



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